The Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Program, retired Brig.-Gen Paul Boroh, said it had stabilized the relatively volatile Niger Delta through its various interventions.
Boroh, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, said this while briefing newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the Amnesty Office has achieved successes in the ongoing phased re-integration of the amnesty program which includes the empowerment of 2,500 ex-agitators and full employment for 400 others.
He said the amnesty office engaged 78 vendors on Dec. 4, 2015 to empower additional 1,225 amnesty beneficiaries.
Boroh said this empowerment would lead to the exit of the beneficiaries from the program and the Federal Government would be able to save N955.5 million annually it used to pay as stipends.
He said that those who had been trained and empowered would create employment opportunities in the Niger Delta.
The coordinator said that his office recently carried out verification to ascertain the exact number of beneficiaries of its scholarship.
“This is to examine its success and streamline the scheme in line with the re-integration stage of the amnesty program," he said.
Boroh said 3,849 students in 22 countries were to be screened, while 2,789 students in 28 institutions of higher learning in Nigeria would also undergo screening.
According to him, the Scholarship Scheme is part of the human capacity building development project under the amnesty program with 30,000 beneficiaries.
The coordinator said the amnesty program was a unique window of opportunity to bring peace, stability and economic development to the nine oil producing states in the region.
''The amnesty program is one of the major reasons for the reduction of kidnapping, oil bunkery and other vices in the region," he said.
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