The Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), at the weekend, said a publication making the rounds in some national newspapers is the latest work of mischief makers, desperately seeking to discredit the Interim Administrator, Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd).
The subterfuge story gave the impression that the Senate has summoned Dikio for allegedly paying N187 million for supply of stationery and consultancy fee for end of year meeting and vocational training.
According to the spurious report, the Senate Public Accounts Committee chaired by Senator Mathew Urhoghide hinged the invitation on a report of the Office of Auditor General of the Federation which allegedly accused the Amnesty Office of financial mismanagement.
But reacting to the report, the Special Adviser to Dikio on Media, Mr. Neotabase Egbe, said in a statement that the incident occurred in 2017, and the circular for the query succinctly captured the date and other details.
He said if the reporters were not acting the script of their paymasters, they should have launched an investigation to fulfil the time tested and age long journalistic ethics of FACTS.
Egbe stressed that the notice of the query which read in part “Audit observed that a payment voucher No. OSAPND/OC-C/368/2017 dated 18th December 2017…”, would have ordinarily made them avoid the gross misrepresentation of the issue.
He stated that contrary to the vexatious report, the amnesty office at no time received “series of invitations from the senate”, adding that Dikio has high regard for institutions of government saddled with the responsibility of carrying out its statutory function.
“The report widely circulated in some national dailes does not represent the true situation of things. The said incident for the supply of stationery and consultancy services for end of year, happened way back in 2017.
“It was, therefore, surprising that for obvious monetary gains, mischief and deliberate action to discredit the Interim Administrator, the authors of the story couldn’t verify from the office.
“Even the nomenclature of the office from the circular shows that the occupant of the office was still referred to as Special Adviser, whereas since the coming of Dikio, it has been rightly changed as Administrator”, he said.
Egbe called on journalists to always cross check with the amnesty office in order to avoid such embarrassing reports, maintaining that Dikio’s mantra of probity and accountability cannot be changed.
