{"id":14899,"date":"2017-06-24T22:03:07","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T22:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=14899"},"modified":"2017-06-24T22:03:07","modified_gmt":"2017-06-24T22:03:07","slug":"presidential-amnesty-office-welcomes-probe-but-rejects-blackmail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=14899","title":{"rendered":"PRESIDENTIAL AMNESTY OFFICE WELCOMES PROBE BUT REJECTS BLACKMAIL"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">The attention of the Presidential Amnesty Office has been drawn to a \u00a0group demanding a probe of its activities. As a public institution answerable to the public, \u00a0the Office is obliged to give account of its activities. So in itself, there is nothing wrong with a probe . Also, a probe does not mean guilt; it is merely an inquiry to find out if any infraction has been committed. It is like a man under-going routine \u00a0medical checkup which does not necessarily mean he \u00a0is sick.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">However, \u00a0the Presidential Amnesty Office objects to the group\u2019s follow up blackmail of the supervising officers, the leadership of the Presidential Amnesty Programme \u00a0and their families.\u00a0 If in truth \u00a0this group wants a probe, it ordinarily would wait for the response of the authorities it has petitioned and the outcome of the probe. To proceed to call for so-called protests in and outside the country until the leadership of the Presidential Amnesty Programme is replaced, is to pronounce guilt even before any investigation is carried out or the officials are given any chance to respond to the load of unsubstantiated claims. This is against the laws of \u00a0natural justice, our national and international laws and ethics which give every human being the fundamental right to defend himself before a competent authority or court of law.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">This exposes the under belly of the probe demand as being far from altruistic; it is an indication that a hatchet job is under way.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=13558&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Unfortunately, there is a growing culture of some persons mainly from the South -South of the country plying on blackmail to get by or get contracts; this will not work with the Presidential Amnesty Programme. It is no more business as usual.Also, despite the blackmail, the Office stands by \u00a0its decision that those on the Amnesty scholarship in tertiary institutions would not be entitled to be paid stipends along with their monthly In-Training-Allowance as this amounts to double payment.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Presidential Amnesty Programme is a professional and security interventionist agency designed to bring peace , stability and development to the Niger Delta \u00a0and has so far succeeded in its primary mandate; it is therefore unpatriotic to seek to politicize it. It is indeed a security programme not a political one and the leadership of the Programme under Brigadier General Paul Boroh (Rtd) the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Programme has strived \u00a0and has so far succeeded in shielding it away from partisan politics.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AMNESTY.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-14900\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AMNESTY-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AMNESTY-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AMNESTY-272x182.jpg 272w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AMNESTY.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">As we know, the Federal Budget was passed about midyear, which led to long delays in payment of stipends, school fees ,projects and In-training-Allowance, \u00a0but through pain staking reach out programmes, meetings, explanations and support by all and sundry, \u00a0the Boroh leadership has been able to \u00a0maintain continuous peace in the Niger Delta.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The Presidential Amnesty Programme is fundamentally on course and we appeal to all well meaning Nigerians to continue to give the Programme the needed support to sustain the peace in the Niger Delta Region. Peace is expensive and therefore requires sustainability.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Owei Lakemfa<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Head, Media.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Presidential Amnesty Programme.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The attention of the Presidential Amnesty Office has been drawn to a \u00a0group demanding a probe of its activities. As a public institution answerable to the public, \u00a0the Office is obliged to give account of its activities. So in itself, there is nothing wrong with a probe . Also, a probe does not mean guilt; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[3920],"class_list":["post-14899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-presidential-amnesty-office"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/AMNESTY.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-3Sj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14901,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14899\/revisions\/14901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}