From Magnus Eze, Abuja
The Federal Government will this year, train 4,770 ex-agitators in the Niger Delta, under the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).
PAP Coordinator and Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Brig. Gen. Paul Boroh (retd), said the programme, from 2015 to 2016, deployed 1, 603 delegates to training centres in the country, adding that 1,230 of them had graduated.
While 196 delegates were currently in training, Boroh regretted that the training of 1,770 others was stalled due to logistical reasons.
He noted that the last 12 months were trying times, both for the office and amnesty beneficiaries, as they contended with achieving much with little resources. He said 1,453 delegates were given various starter-packs, including shop rentals while 966 of them underwent refresher training.
Boroh, who said a survey by the monitoring and evaluation team indicated that those empowered made profits, further disclosed that the office domesticated most of its education and training programmes in order to ensure sustainability, development of local organisations and conservation of funds including foreign exchange.
According to him, the greatest impact of the programme in the last one year was, perhaps, the reorientation of beneficiaries to agriculture and aquaculture as an alternative to revamp the ailing economy.