FG begins direct payment of ex-militants’ stipends

The Federal Government said it had started the direct payment of three months arrears of stipends owed former Niger Delta militants.

The Chief of Staff to the Office of the Special Adviser to the President and Co-ordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Col. Dedis Abel (retd.), who disclosed this on Thursday, promised that the Federal Government would, henceforth, be paying the former agitators directly.

Speaking during the launch of the direct payment system in Port Harcourt, Abel said the era of paying ex-militants their stipends through their leaders was over.

He pointed out that the current step taken by government became necessary following reports of complicity and shortchanging of the ex-fighters by their leaders.

Abel explained that some of the former militants were paid as low as N20, 000 as against the N65, 000 monthly stipends earmarked for each of them.

According to him, “The Amnesty Office took the decision to pay the ex-agitators directly following reports of complicity and short-changing of some of them by the leaders.”