Amnesty Refutes Graft Allegation, Restates Commitment to Probity
The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has faulted a report, which recently described the federal establishment as a cesspool of corruption and financial impropriety.
In a statement by its Interim Administrator, Maj.-Gen. Barry Ndiomu yesterday, the Programme demanded immediate retraction of the report or would be forced to initiate legal action against its author and publisher.
Since his assumption of office, Ndiomu explained that he had consistently advocated and ensured all his staff adhered to due process and commitment to best practices in the discharge of their duties, and would not spare any staff who deviated from these.
On this ground, the interim administrator frowned at the report, which accused some staff members of PAP’s Finance and Audit departments of complicity in corrupt practices it described, “advance payment”.
Ndiomu said its scholarship “has not been terminated, but merely suspended and all delegates on formal education, both onshore and offshore remain bona fide beneficiaries and will continue to enjoy approved privileges attached to their various scholarship schemes.”
He noted that the current suspension “is as a result of PAP’s financial situation due to debts incurred by previous formal education scholarship awards and other commitments, adding that the suspension will be lifted as soon as these obligations are cleared.”
Contrary to insinuations, Ndiomu noted that the PAP-sponsored formal education scholarship awards had not been discontinued; rather the award of fresh scholarships to potential beneficiaries has been suspended
In another statement by Mr. Thomas Peretu, PAP said: “We hereby state that the story entitled, ‘Presidential Amnesty Programme Still a Cesspool of mind-boggling corruption’ is nothing but a figment of the author’s imagination.
“It also violates the simple journalistic ethos of fairness. From all indications, the misguided reporter is on a mission to dent the image of the programme.
“We are at a loss to understand what the writer means by advance payment and how it is being used to perpetrate fraud in the system. Moreso, the reporter failed to substantiate her bogus claims with verifiable evidence of corruption in the programme.
“The story is diversionary and totally at variance with the good traditions of journalism, and a deliberate attempt to rubbish the current puritanical disposition of the leadership of the programme as explained by the presidency and its finicky in its commitment to due process in the awards and execution of contracts where adequate attention is meticulously paid to details.
“In the meantime, we enjoin the public to discountenance the said report because it lacks merit and does not represent the real picture of activities at the PAP,” the statement explained.
