Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Prof Charles Dokubo, has refuted the allegation that graduates of the Benson Idahosa University, Benin, Edo State, who were under the sponsorship of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, have not been paid their stipends and allowances from July to September 2018.
This was made known in a statement made available by Mr Murphy Ganagana, the Special Assistant on Media to Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme.
Dokubo made the statement following what the body described as a ‘purported’ protest at the weekend by a group led by Destiny OnadiyaPerewari, that claimed that some beneficiaries of the amnesty programme graduated, but the management of BIU refused to release their certificates due to failure of the Amnesty Office to meet its financial obligations to the institution.
Dokubo said, “We wish to state emphatically that there is no iota of truth in the allegation as the Amnesty Office has paid stipends and allowances to all our beneficiaries who recently graduated from the BIU.
“Contrary to the claim that they were still being owed for three months after graduating from the institution. Specifically, 79 graduating students of BIU under Amnesty Programme were paid stipends and allowances up till the month June 2018.
“It is pertinent to state that payment of entitlements to Amnesty Programme beneficiaries undergoing educational programmes cease as soon as the delegate completes the final examination for graduation. Therefore, the Amnesty Office does not owe the recently graduated students of BIU any other financial obligation on the scholarship granted them since they had completed their studies and exited the institution.”
The amnesty office also stated that it had equally paid stipends and allowances for the months of July, August and September 2018, to 85 beneficiaries who are still undergoing various programmes at the institution, as such it ‘wholly discharged financial obligations to beneficiaries deployed in BIU.’
Punch