Amnesty: Our Children Abandoned, Beneficiaries’ Parents Claim
By Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa
Parents of beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme from the Niger Delta, studying in the United States of America, on Wednesday alleged that many of their children currently live like prisoners of war following the inability of the federal government to pay their sundry fees.
The affected parents of the young students have therefore appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to salvage the education of their children and save them from being thrown out in the streets by the American government.
In a joint statement signed by Kingsley Feboke, Ayente Douglas and Mrs. Victoria Feboke, on behalf of 43 others, the parents said that their children were enrolled in universities in America through the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Special Scholarship for Crisis Impacted Communities in the region.
It was gathered that former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration approved the programme for the youths from crisis-impacted areas to be captured under the Amnesty programme.
However, the aggrieved parents of the beneficiaries complained that the authorities in the Amnesty Office and Kaplan Consultants, the people who got the contract for the programme, were playing politics with the education and lives of the children.
They alleged that the programme was no longer moving smoothly due to alleged disagreement between the Amnesty office and the consultants, which they said was affecting the children negatively.
‘’We are constrained to raise the alarm because our children have been abandoned in the United States and are being treated as Prisoners of War. These children are between the ages of 16 and 17. We got reports that the Amnesty Office is considering revoking the contract with Kaplan (the consultants)’’, the parents alleged.
The 43 Niger Delta students, it was learnt, were beneficiaries under the Third Phase for communities impacted by violence and armed conflicts after qualifying the initial hurdle in Nigeria.
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