Amnesty Programme Alumni Disown Scholarship Student’s Union Boss over Attack on Dikio

Blessing Ibunge

The Presidential Amnesty Scholarship Alumni (PASA) has disowned the President of the National Association for Presidential Amnesty Students Worldwide (NAPASW), Mr. Lucky Ukueku, over alleged attempts to undermine achievements of the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dikio (rtd).

PASA described Ukueku’s remarks in a statement that all was not well with the amnesty programme as a cheap blackmail.

The scholarship alumni said that it was unacceptable, illegal and irresponsible for Ukueku to be parading himself as the leader of NAPASW despite completing his scholarship programme with PAP.

A statement that was signed yesterday by the Coordinator of PASA, Mr. James Warigo, insisted that Ukueku had no locus to speak for the amnesty scholarship students as he was no longer part of them.

Warigo recalled that at different forums, genuine scholarship students of PAP had poured encomiums on Dikio and described his administration, style and reforms as exceptional.

He also recalled that in September 2020 when Dikio took over PAP from the Caretaker Committee after closure of admissions, he (Dikio) inherited a debt burden of N71.4 billion for a programme with an annual budget of N65 billion.

He observed that with prudent management of resources, Dikio had been able to keep the programme afloat by ensuring prompt payments of stipends, school fees and other allowances.

Warigo observed that in 2022 alone, PAP under Dikio was able to deploy 1700 students to various institutions in order to make up for lost time despite restrictions imposed on such deployment.

On the complaint by Ukueku that laptops had not been given to students under the Dikio, Warigo said that his findings revealed that Dikio inherited a laptop scam and had put measures in place to clean up the rot before issuing new laptops.

He said that Dikio would have since cleared the rot but was hindered by multiple lawsuits that had slowed down the process and make its distribution subjudice.

Warigo cautioned the likes of Ukueku against turning their self-serving enterprise into a collective agitation, adding that Ukueku should have leveraged on the academic training he got from PAP scholarship to be an ambassador of good character.

He said the entire PAP’s alumni were ashamed and highly embarrassed by the statement signed by Ukueku, who desired to remain forever a student that begged for favours and when denied would resort to all manner of subterfuge and blackmail.

He said: “The Presidential Scholarship Alumni (PASA) condemns in strong terms the statement credited to Ukueku, who has graduated from the PAP scholarship scheme and lacks the locus to speak for the current scholarship students.

“The current scholarship students have only but kind words for the Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd) for reforming, repositioning and reorganising all departments in PAP including the PAP scholarship scheme.”