Why Contractors are after Amnesty Interim Coordinator – Ijaw Leaders

AHERHOKE OKIOMA,YENAGOA

Scores of Ijaw leaders under the aegis of the Ijaw Forward Movement (IFM) have opened up the reasons why major contractors are after the jugular of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Col Milland Dixon Dikio rtd.

In an online statement, the group Coordinator, Anthony Oki, posited that Dikios offence may not be unconnected with his insistence on cleaning up the payment process by following due process to verify projects done by Amnesty Contractors before approving the disbursement of funds.

According to the statement, they became enraged when about N26bn unspent amnesty fund was retrieved by the Federal government with the anti-corruption principle of the federal government.

Their anger is that Dikio refused to share the money within two days. As an organization, we read the position of the amnesty office on this matter. The money entered Amnesty coffers on December 31 it was mopped up along other unspent funds in their ministries, departments, and agencies in line with the fiscal policy of the federal government.

“There is no way such amount of money could have been spent within such a period of time, which is what these corrupt contractors wanted Dikio to do.
Though we appealed to the federal government to roll over the money to enable PAP to meet its obligations, especially as it is a security programme, we will not allow these contractors to twist the narrative out of their selfish interest.

“The group also warned contractors to stop the allege ongoing campaign of calumny against the PAP Coordinator, Col Milland Dixon Dikio rtd .”

These contractors constitute a major problem of the Amnesty programme. They have hijacked the programme  using all manners of underhand tactics to corner significant chunk of money earmarked to empower ex-militants “

“They are behind the failures of the PAP. They claimed they have trained and empowered about 22,000 ex- militants. Does the Niger Delta look like a region where even 5000 persons had been trained and empowered”

“As an organization, we took our time to probe the activities of these contractors and discovery from field reports show that most of these so-called  contractors do not spend up to 15% of funds given to them to train and empowered beneficiaries,”

“They cornered this money to maintain their flamboyant lifestyles in Abuja and Lagos. They are the ones that ride exotic cars and live in mansions while those that fought for Amnesty wallow in abject poverty.
They dangle carrots before the beneficiaries and compelled  them to sign papers on fake empowerment programmes”

The IFM said a notable contractor was given a contract of N1.8bn to evacuate and distribute amnesty kits worth over N15bn parked at Kaiama, Kolokuma/Opokuma in Bayelsa state, but that the entire materials were looted by the locals. He said ”

Now that contractor is still mounting pressure on Dikio to pay him the money. These contractors ganged up against Dikio and started sponsoring campaigns of calumny and bankrolling protests and publications because the Amnesty boss insisted that only verified contractors will be paid and payment will begin sequentially from 2014.

The group urged Dikio to remain resolute and  focus on discharging the functions of the office in zero tolerance for corruption, adding that PAP, despite these distractions was living up to its mandate for the first time in the history of the program.”

This is the first time the program has been brought closer to its owners in the Niger Delta.

Dikio has obviously come to make a difference and we know that persons who are used to business as usual will oppose him.

We are warning these contractors to steer clear of Dikio. We know the contractors sponsoring these campaigns and if they failed to back off, we will name them” He warned.