Buhari Appoints New Niger Delta Amnesty Coordinator

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a Coordinator for the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), which provides payments and scholarships to Niger Delta ex-militants.

The new Coordinator, retired Brigadier General P.T. Boroh, will double as the Special Advisor on the Niger Delta. He enters the position after it lay vacant for some months.

The person to hold the position in the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, Kingsley Kuku, was summoned last weekfor questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).


An EFCC source told Premium Times that Mr. Kuku and two colleagues are suspected of embezzlement and diversion of public funds worth hundreds of millions of naira.

The appointment comes less than a week after President Buhari’s official visit to the US, where he made controversial comments about his intention to address issues, including the amnesty program, in the Niger Delta.

“I hope you have a copy of the election results,” Mr. Buhari responded to a question at the United States Institute of Peace. “The constituents, for example, [who] gave me 97% [of the vote] cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%.”

Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said in a statement that Mr. Boroh’s appointment will hopefully resolve the PAP’s failure to make payments to its beneficiaries, some of whom are on scholarship abroad and have been stranded or kicked out of their institutions.

 when their source of money was cut off. A group of thirteen ex-militants, for example, was sent away from the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Frankfurt, Germany, due to the nonpayment of their fees. Other Niger Delta ex-militants have also been sent packing by their various institutions in South Africa, Russia, Ukraine, and several countries in Europe.