WARRI—THE Itsekiri Amnesty Beneficiaries in Delta State, have protested  their alleged “victimisation in the amnesty programme by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr Kingsley Kuku,” saying over 100 Itsekiri given admission to study in the United Kingdom for master’s and Ph.D degrees for September 2014 have not been sponsored.

The protesters, who marched to the constituency office of House of Representatives member, Mr  Daniel Reyenieju and the palace of the Olu of Warri, with their petition as well as placards with various inscriptions, said that apart from the non-release of funds for 100 Itsekiri billed to embark on their post-graduate programmes abroad, the Presidential Amnesty Office was also yet to make funds available for another 300 Itsekiri set for skilled and vocational training despite alleged approval of money for the programme since May 20, 2014 by the National Assembly.

They said: “Any time the Itsekiri amnesty beneficiaries are to travel abroad for the various programmes under the post-amnesty plan, the unavailability of funds will pop up while funds are always available for other ethnic groups/nationalities any time their persons/beneficiaries are to travel abroad for different programmes.”

The protesters with placards, which read “Send us for our training,” “Stop victimisation of Itsekiri beneficiaries,” “Vocational training is our right,” “Kuku release our funds,” among others,  claimed that out of the 500 amnesty slots to Itsekiri instead of the 5,000 originally approved, they “have not been able to benefit anything tangible.”

In an open letter addressed to President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Assembly, the amnesty beneficiaries said  that 73 of them were yet to receive their monthly stipends of N65,000 from January 2013 to December 2013 for reasons not known to them.