By Dapo Akinrefon

NO fewer than 20 former militants undergoing training under the Presidential Amnesty Programme have called on the Presidency to wade into their alleged unlawful disengagement by Bensam Maritime Oil and Gas Limited from automobile engineering training in Lagos.

In a petition by leader of the group, Mr Kemepamene Moses, the trainees accused the contractor of disengaging them half way into the training programme and failed to pay their nine months allowances.

They urged the Special Adviser and Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty to wade into the matter.

The statement reads: We started this training in June 2016, which was expected to last for nine months and after three months into the training, the contractor/consultant asked us to go for a break that lasted for almost 10 months without any reason. Out of the three months training, we were paid for only two months.

“We have done the training for another five months totalling eight instead of nine months. To make things worse, they are asking us to proceed on another break without allowing us complete the initial nine months approved by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta without paying our outstanding allowances, giving us laptops meant for the programme and the certificate of the training.”

‘’We urge the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta to come to our aid and ensure the contractor/consultant allows us complete the programme and pay the backlog of our allowances.”