The Office of the Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta disbursed at least N6.8bn for goods and services under the Presidential Amnesty Programme between May and December 2025. This information was obtained from the open-government transparency platform, GovSpend. The platform tracks Federal Government expenditures and revealed that payments were made across 50 transactions.
The bulk of the spending was channelled into mass procurement of laptops for scholarship students. A total of N5.47bn was spent procuring 4,000 laptops through 10 separate suppliers. The data showed that laptop procurement dominated the disbursements, with payments made to various suppliers, including Altitude Global Links Limited and Barbolad Global Services Limited.
In addition to laptop contracts, the Office paid N495.38m for 4,200 bags of rice described as intended for “stakeholders under the presidential amnesty programme.” The Office also remitted approximately N814.9m to the Federal Inland Revenue Service in value-added tax, withholding tax, and stamp duties arising from those contracts.
Analysis of the data revealed that the per-unit price of the laptops purchased varied. In July 2025, two batches of 200 laptops each were purchased at a unit price of approximately N1.46m per device. However, between October and December 2025, eight batches of 400 laptops were each procured at a unit price of approximately N1.36m.
The Presidential Amnesty Programme was established on June 25, 2009, when the late President Umaru Yar’Adua proclaimed amnesty for militants in the Niger Delta. The initiative was built on three pillars: disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration. Approximately 20,192 ex-militants surrendered arms within the initial 60-day window.
The programme has now run for more than 16 years, with a significant increase in funding. In 2026, the Federal Government raised the programme’s allocation to N115bn in the 2026 Appropriation Act, a 76.9 per cent jump from the N65bn allocated in both 2024 and 2025. So far, the programme has gulped at least N700bn of public funds over the past decade.
However, a 2021 study by the Stakeholder Democracy Network found that the programme was “spectacularly opaque compared to other government entities.” The study documented “widespread allegations” that thousands of “ghost agitators” had been fraudulently inserted onto the payroll, and that mismanagement had allowed elites to “develop ways to steer the PAP in their favour.”
Key points
- The Presidential Amnesty Programme spent N6.8bn on goods and services between May and December 2025.
- The programme has gulped at least N700bn of public funds over the past decade.
- The 2026 allocation for the programme is N115bn, a 76.9 per cent increase from 2024 and 2025.
