Fate Of Protesting Ex-agitators To Be Determined By Investigations Into BVN Fraud, Says PAP

The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) has affirmed that findings that will emanate from the ongoing investigation into multiple accounts of ex-agitaors linked to one BVN, will determine the fate of protesting beneficiaries.

Addressing Newsmen on Tuesday, Media Aide to the PAP Interim Administrator, Mr Freston Akpo disclosed that all names of those involved in the BVN fraud have been forwarded to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for investigation.

This was even as the Amnesty Office had also blamed bank officials for colluding with these ex-agitaors to aid the financial crime.

He said: “So investigation is ongoing and honestly I must tell you there is nothing the Presidential Amnesty Programme can do now over this matter until the investigation is concluded and then the ONSA will take a decision on what to do.

“This is a financial crime that is why the ONSA is investigating the matter. The policy is one name, one BVN. But in a situation where you have more than 30 names linked to one BVN, it becomes an issue.

“We discovered that 513 names were linked to 1370 accounts. And these are the people who have cases to answer. As it stands those who are protesting are the people who fall within those who have multiple accounts linked to their BVN.”

On the purported ‘gentleman agreement’ with the leaders of the ex-agitaors to receive monies in bulk to pay their boys, he said: “it is these same boys, so-called beneficiaries, who have also come to complain that when the money is collected by this so-called leaders, the money doesn’t trickle down to them”.

National Wire gathered that a handful of ex-agitaors on Tuesday gathered at the premises of the National Assembly to express angst over the stoppage of their monthly N65,000 stipends, which the PAP office said was necessitated by the issues surrounding BVNs.