ABUJA—The federal government said yesterday that selection of beneficiaries of onshore educational programme of the Presidential Amnesty Office was based on performance of candidates in the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, examination and not federal character or volume of crude oil produced by states.

Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Matters, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, gave the explanation in response to allegations in some quarters that the programme was skewed in favour of candidates from Bayelsa State, to the detriment of candidates from Akwa Ibom State. While Bayelsa got 109 slots, Akwa Ibom had three.

He spoke in Lagos at the pre-departure orientation for 77 Niger Delta youths to Dubai for six months vocational training in pipeline welding and electrical installation.

Kuku, who spoke through the Technical Assistant on Re-integration, Mr. Larry Pepple, said the selection of beneficiaries for placement in private and government-owned universities was not based on state of origin, federal character or number of oil wells in the states, but by the documentation of ex- militants from different camps during the demobilisation stage of the amnesty programme.

He said beside being selected from the data, the 254 beneficiaries for 2014 onshore educational programme met the cut-off mark requirements and had five credits in their school certificate examination, noting that the minimum cut off mark in the JAMB examination was set at 180.

He stressed that the major criteria for beneficiaries was that of belonging to any of the defunct militant camps that voluntarily surrendered arms and embraced the amnesty programme at its inception in 2009.

According to him, all such camps were captured and documented in a data system at the inauguration of the programme, from which beneficiaries were drawn.

He said information making the round that Akwa Ibom State beneficiaries were shortchanged from the programme was false, adding that the National Universities Commission, NUC, required that beyond scoring above 180 in the JAMB examinations, the beneficiaries should have the minimum educational entry requirements into Nigerian universities, which is five credits, including Mathematics and English Language.

Kuku said the three beneficiaries from Akwa Ibom State were selected based on their performance at the JAMB examinations, having scored above the 180 cut off marks, as stipulated by the National Universities Commission, NUC.

Kuku said the resolution to pursue educational programmes was purely the decision of the beneficiaries at the stage of demobilisation after they were documented during their orientation at the first stage of the amnesty programme .

He said the choice to pursue educational programme was that of the individual beneficiary , and not determined by the state of origin.