‘Amnesty Office not responsible for attack’

By Dele Anofi, Abuja 

The Presidential Amnesty Office has denounced the attack on reporters at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat in Warri, Delta State, by a group that called itself former Niger Delta agitators.

The Amnesty Office in a statement yesterday by the Head of Media and Communications, Daniel Alabrah,  dismissed the claim by the protesters that they are being owed their monthly stipend. 

The Office said the attack was part of a campaign of calumny and the attempt to blackmail the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Kingsley Kuku.

The statement reads: “For purposes of clarification, our records show that the so-called protesters, who claimed to be former agitators under Phase Two of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, are not known to this Office.

“Clearly, they are impostors trying to reap from the success of the amnesty programme. Information available to us also shows that this was the same group that attacked the Benin NUJ secretariat last week and made similar claims.”

“The Amnesty Office is not owing any Niger Delta youth under the Presidential Amnesty Programme as their stipends are paid through their banks from the 25th of every month. The payment process is computerised and no one is paid by hand.”