BY Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

ABUJA—The Presidency has taken steps to pacify the Itshekiri ethnic nationality with the award of 52 scholarship slots to the indigenes of the area to pursue graduate and post-graduate studies in the United Kingdom under its capacity building programme.

The 52 students, who left Nigeria last night, are to pursue specialised courses in strategic areas of human endeavour, with a view to returning to impact positively on their community and Nigeria as part of the Special Scholarship Scheme put in place by the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

With the latest deployment of Itshekiri students to the United Kingdom, the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta has dispatched no fewer than 595 Niger Delta youths to pursue diverse graduate and post-graduate courses in Britain.

The list of students so far sponsored by the PAC and made available to Vanguard, indicated that Malaysia follows with the second largest number of students with 187 delegates from Nigeria, followed by the United States of America and South Africa with 71 each.
Ghana also hosts a total of 63 of the Niger Delta youths followed by Belarus and Russia with 53 and 45 delegates respectively.

Addressing the delegates before their departure from Abuja for London, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, who was represented by Mr. Larry Pepple, disclosed that a total of 2255 Niger Delta youths had so far been sponsored by the office to acquire specialised training in Nigeria and abroad.
Kuku appealed to them to do Nigeria proud by studying hard and coming out with brilliant results to justify the huge expenditure invested in their future by the Federal Government.