From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Ex-agitators in the Niger/Delta region have endorsed the ongoing cleansing exercise introduced by the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Col. Milland Dixon Dikio aimed at removing ghost beneficiaries from the PAP’s payroll.
The leaders of phases one to three amnesty beneficiaries made their position known during a meeting with Dikio in Agadagba-Obon in Ondo State.
Speaking, Victor-Ben commended Dikio for the ongoing verification excercise to end the fraud in the amnesty system which had denied many authentic ex-agitators the opportunity to benefit from the monthly stipends.
He said the lip service paid to the issue by former heads of the scheme made it grow into a monster and emboldened persons behind it to continue to reap where they did not sow.
Victor-Ben said instead of attacking Dikio for his courage to embark on the verification excercise, lovers of the Niger Delta region should praise him for cleaning the Augean stable and repositioning the programme.
He called for unity and peaceful coexistence among all ex-agitators and urged them to support Dikio by shunning all actions capable of derailing the amnesty programme.
He charged leaders of the various phases to work for the actualization of the new PAP vision introduced by Dikio to accelerate development of the region and ensure sustained peace.
The former warlord said henceforth, they would join forces with Dikio to name and shame all those, who for sinister reasons, decided to embarrass the system with frivolous petitions and court cases.
Earlier in his remarks, Dikio explained that suspension of an account belonging to any ex-agitator did not translate to total cancelation, saying all cleared accounts would be paid outstanding stipend arrears.
He disclosed that one of the major discovery of the ongoing verification was how a particular unnamed person had been receiving, for years monies meant for 400 people in connivance with some government officials.