By Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

Abuja—The Federal Government has faulted a leader of the Pan Niger Delta Elders Forum’s claim that N29 billion had been set aside in this year’s budget to tackle militancy in the Niger Delta.

Dr. Alfred Mulade,  a member of the Central Working Committee of Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, had castigated the Federal Government for budgeting the huge sum to counter militancy in the Niger Delta instead of dialoguing and providing services to the people.

But the Budget Ministry  in a statement by the Media Adviser to the Minister, Mr. Akpandem James, denied the provision of such amount for fighting militants in the restive region, which is already under amnesty by the Federal Government.

It said: “It must be clearly stated that there is no such provision in the 2017 budget proposals presented by the President, so we have absolutely no idea where this story is coming from.

“The relevant section of Mulade’s purported statement did not even indicate that the speculated provision was contained in the 2017 budget. Instead, it stated: ‘To make matters worse, the government is reported to have earmarked a whooping N29 bn of oil revenue to fight militancy in the Niger Delta region.’

“Indeed, the President has consistently and categorically stated that the focus of his administration in 2017 will be to ‘continue to pursue peace initiatives in the Niger Delta’ through dialogue and engagement.

“It is for this reason that, among other projects earmarked for the Niger Delta, the sum of N65 billion  has been provided in the 2017 budget proposals for the re-integration of transformed ex-militants under the Presidential Amnesty Programme.”

It was not clear at press time, if PANDEF headed by former Information Minister, Chief Edwin Clark, with top shots such as former Akwa Ibom governors, Obong Victor Attah and Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga, had met to evaluate the federal budget since President Buhari presented it weeks ago.

A source in PANDEF said the group would meet for the first time after the budget next week.

 N29bn for counter air, counter surface, others

 —Vanguard’s findings

Vanguard, however, gathered that the Federal Government has not made any specific budget for fighting Niger Delta militants in this year’s budget, contrary to the claim by the PANDEF chieftain.

In fact, only the sum of N500 million is captured in the Nigerian Navy’s budget for the acquisition of sea-supporting facilities such as life jackets for its personnel and no specific provision was made for the Niger Delta militancy.

In the budget sighted by Vanguard, the Federal Government has only earmarked N29 billion for countering insurgency and other forms of threat to national peace in the budget.

Under the outlay captured in the budget of the Defence Headquarters and the Nigerian Air Force, the Federal Government plans to acquire new platforms for counter air, counter surface and air operations as well as materials for strategic effect and air support operations in Nigeria.

Similarly, the government is to spend additional N6.429 billion for operational logistics, while it is to reconfigure two Augusta AW101 Helicopters for military operations at the cost of N620 million within the year.