Presidential panel to arrest past, present amnesty bosses for alleged fraud

Special Presidential Investigative Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIPR) has sought a bench warrant to arrest coordinators of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) for former Niger Delta militants from 2012 to date.

Chairman of the Panel, Okoi Obono-Obla who disclosed this at a media briefing in Abuja, said the decision to seek bench warrant was due to refusal of the SAs to honour its invitations and defend allegations against them before the panel.

Obono-Obla said there were allegations that some militants were not paid under the programme, adding that soldiers truncated several attempts to get one of the SAs, leading to the team’s tactical withdrawal.

“We are also investigating all SAs and occupants of that office, who served from 2012 to 2019, because there are evidences that they were not paying allowances to militants, which amounts to embezzlement and misappropriation.

“Their budget is for them to pay militants, who have denounced militancy in the Niger Delta, because it was part of the agreement the Federal Government entered into during the Late President Musa Yar’Adua’s time.

“Our team went there and some soldiers who were guarding the place obstructed our team and we didn’t want any fight between two agencies, so we made a tactical withdrawal,” he stated.

Obono-Obla also said the panel has documents in its possession showing that some Nigerians have more than 1, 500 landed property in Dubai, United Arab Emirate.

“We are working with Interpol, because our work transcends the borders of Nigeria and some people take assets here abroad, investigation cannot be localised.

“We do not have the structure to do international investigation, so we have partnered with the Interpol to assist us in our international investigations,” he added.