Amnesty Programme Trains 75 Ex-Agitators as Pilots, Aircraft Engineers in France, South Africa

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) headed by Major General Barry Ndiomu (rtd), said 75 former agitators are presently undergoing training in South Africa and France as pilots and aircraft engineers for type-rating as part of the Programme’s aviation training scheme.

The S.A. Media to the PAP Interim Administrator, Freston Akpor, said in a statement that 35 of the delegates were pilots while 40 were billed for aircraft engineering.

He noted that enormous windows of employment opportunities had been provided by the Presidential Amnesty for ex-agitators in the oil-rich Niger Delta region to thrive.

“Under Gen. Ndiomu, a total of 847 delegates are undergoing training in the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in various ICT specialised fields with certification in digital marketing, e-mail marketing, social media marketing, computer appreciation, search engine optimization as well as technical and computer writing,” Akpor said.

He said that from vocational training centres, to opportunities in Federal Government agencies, and incentives for viable SMEs, the innovative ideas initiated by Ndiomu will guarantee the socio-economic sustainability of ex-agitators and the youth in the Niger Delta.

He said a major boost to that initiative was the launching of the PAP Cooperative Scheme with an initial sum of N1.5 billion as seed money with an additional N100 million fund to be solely managed by the ex-agitators.

The cooperative scheme has an eminent jurist, Justice Francis Tabai, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria as chair of the board with a team of experienced consultants to assist in nurturing the cooperative into fruition.

On the vocational training centers designed to provide skills for the teeming youths in the region when completed, he emphasized that the Ndiomu-led PAP has reimbursed contractors to facilitate the completion of five vocational centers across the region.

He added that after further verification of the payment database, it was discovered that some beneficiaries had multiple accounts linked to their BVNs.

He noted that in total 513 beneficiaries had 1370 accounts on the payment list linked to their BVNs, while other anomalies were that of certain accounts not linked to their BVNs had a total of 2601 accounts.

He said that the PAP has provided employment for a critical number of young graduates from the Niger Delta in line with the vision of the amnesty programme, thereby reducing the culture and cycle of dependency and indolence.