Protest: NAPASW President accuses Amnesty Office of bribing students

 . . . Dismisses alumni association

The National President of National Presidential Amnesty Students Worldwide (NAPASW), Comrade Lucky Ukueku, has accused the amnesty office under the administration of its Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), of bribing some students of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) to cause division in the Students’ Community.

In an open letter to the general public, Ukueku, on Friday, July 8, 2022, dismissed claims by one James Warigo’ whom he referred to as a self-acclaimed Coordinator of PAP Alumni, explaining that NAPASW was a democratically elected body with a constitution that governs the entire PAP students, with him as the National President, working with the national executives all of whom were elected and inaugurated on June 19 and July 2021, respectively, to serve for one year.

Part of the letter reads: “My name is Comrade Lucky Ukueku, the National President of all Presidential Amnesty students worldwide called NAPASW. This is a union that governs the entire students of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP). Under this forum, we have 16 universities with their elected Chapter Presidents.

“I am the first democratically elected National President of NAPASW, and it was done by a delegate election where the various chapter Presidents and some students partook in the electoral process.”

Ukueku who will quit office by the end of this month, disclosed that an electoral committee was constituted during the PAP Students Congress at Igbinedion University, Okada, and mandated to conduct fresh elections on July 30.

Dismissing the existence of any body known as Alumni Forum, the NAPASW Pesident stated: “Since the inception of this program in 2009, till date, we have not heard of an Alumni forum constituted by the (Amnesty) office or students themselves; except for a handful of students who, after their tertiary institution, gained favour from the office through sabotage of the students’ community, formed it to debunk the known plights of the students’ community already made public, as well as plans being made to improve the student’s welfare.

Relating how the amnesty office causes divisions and disunity among the students, Ukueku has this to say: “One of the basic issues causing controversies is that the Amnesty office has engaged a lot of students in the students’ community by giving some of them extra training, some Msc, and some slots to empower their friends and relatives, while some were given cash gifts to cause division, disunity and chaos in the students’ community.

“Whenever sensitive issues bedeviling the students’ community are being discussed, rather than joining hands with people to proffer lasting solutions to our problems, the same students benefitting from the office will always debunk our issues, just to cause mayhem and confusion, thereby tarnishing the image and reputation of the students’ community in general before the public.

“In that regard, we hereby inform on the general public that contrary to expectations, things are not going smoothly as expected in the Amnesty office. They are busy causing confusion and unrest in the students’ community by sponsoring some sections to cause a division amongst the students.

“These students and stakeholders have allowed themselves to be used as tools in the hands of those at the very corridors of power in the office, thereby selling off their conscience regardless of the negative effect it has had on the entire student community, so rather than grow and develop, we have ended up stagnating.”

Ukueku also said he approached the office to secure another scholarship to further his studies in one of the universities in the country but was denied while others were given the privilege “because I don’t have a brother or sister in the office.”

“As the National President of NAPASW, after an active service to the programme and humanity, I approached the office to secure another scholarship to further my career, after my first degree, to further build and develop myself to be proficient in my service delivery to the community and the region at large. The PAP office asked me to secure an admission from one of the universities in Nigeria, which I did only for me to get to the office to have approval for the continuity but was barred from securing the scholarship.”

The NAPASW National President then called on the NSA, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), all the Niger Delta stakeholders and leaders to look into the plight of the PAP students and act to correct the anomalies.

“Col. Dikio-led Amnesty office has not been fair to the students’community, its way of leadership has been very sentimental and parochial with too many loopholes which need to be corrected very fast in order not to further escalate issues. The office only incites the students’ community and tries to complicate issues by giving listening ears to some set of persons who end up parading themselves as demigods before the student community. This has resulted in disunity and unrest in the students’ community,” Ukueku alleged.

“As the eligible elected president of NAPASW, it is only ethical that I stand to defend and fight against any form of ill-treatment the Amnesty office wants to dish to the students’ community which has done nothing wrong but is demanding equal rights and justice.

Ukueku also called on the Dikio-led administration to respond to some of the unanswered questions which he named to include why there is a litigation

“Why is there litigation against the PAP office; why there is no consideration for 198 students of the University of Africa Toru-Orua (UAT) said to have been suffering; why the set of (2019/2020) that are currently going to 400L without their laptops, even as most of them were studying Computer Science; and why some students in Bayelsa Medical University (BMU), the set of (2019/2020) that were deployed to the school but to date, were yet to be captured by the PAP, among others.

The NAPASW concluded by appealing to the Dikio-led administration to respond to the several letters relating to the welfare of the students’ community, saying that if their agitation was given a favourable response, “then there is no need for peaceful protest.”