N130billion Spent On Amnesty For Ex-Niger Delta Militants In Two Years – FG

A SaharaReporters’ review of the budget performance document for the fourth quarter of 2024 has shown that the Nigerian government spent N65 billion on the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in the 2024 fiscal year.

The same amount was spent in 2023, the review shows.

This means that between the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, a total of N130 billion was spent on the programme aimed at ex-militants from the Niger Delta region.

In November 2024, SaharaReporters reported that a document by the Auditor-General of the Federation exposed a shocking withdrawal of over N6 billion without proper auditing processes.

These included the payment of tuition fees to various universities for students under the PAP without records of their identity.

The report highlighted a blatant disregard for financial regulations, with N1.53 billion paid as tuition fees without supporting documents.

This constitutes a clear breach of Paragraph 708 of the Financial Regulations, 2009, which states that payment should not be made for services not yet performed or goods not yet supplied.

Furthermore, the report revealed widespread breaches of Paragraph 603(i) of the FR 2009, which requires vouchers to contain full particulars of each service, including dates, numbers, quantities, distances, and rates.

“The sum of N1,529,669,500 were paid to various universities as tuition fees for students under PAP and relevant supporting documents such as receipts, evidence of payments, admission letter, etc were not attached to the paid vouchers,” the report indicated.

While attributing the irregularities to weaknesses in the internal control system at the PAP office in Abuja, the report noted that it had reached out to the management of the PAP but got no response.

In the same vein, the report stated that a total of N3.62 billion was raised without an internal audit check.

A further review of the report also showed that the sum of N29 million was granted as cash advances to officers of the programme for the procurement of goods and services, above the advance limit of N200,000.

“Some officers were granted multiple advances without evidence of retiring previous advances granted them, contrary to the previous extant regulations,” the report added.

The report also noted that the sum of N87.7 million was paid for the purchase of various store items and “there was no evidence provided to show that the items were taken on store ledger charge.”  (SaharaReporters)