By. Jenny Akporero
The Itsekiri Ex-Agitators Forum has called for the immediate inclusion of qualified Itsekiri ex-agitators and students in the educational and human capital development initiatives of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), alleging that members of the ethnic group have been excluded from recent scholarship deployments.
The Coordinator of the Forum, Comrade Dennis Mene, made the demand in a statement issued to journalists, following the recent deployment of postgraduate scholarship beneficiaries by PAP to universities in the United Kingdom. PAP has confirmed that 243 offshore postgraduate scholarships have been deployed in 2026, including a batch of 150 beneficiaries announced in August.
Mene alleged that despite the presence of qualified Itsekiri youths within the PAP database, no Itsekiri student or ex-agitator was included in the recent allocations. He described the situation as a matter of serious concern and called for transparency and fairness in the selection of beneficiaries across the Niger Delta.
According to him, the Forum was particularly concerned that previous offshore scholarship beneficiaries had been sponsored in specialised fields such as cybersecurity, software engineering, data science, law, forensic audit, fintech analytics and construction engineering management, among others. PAP has publicly listed several of these disciplines among the programmes being undertaken by its overseas scholars.
Mene therefore demanded the immediate inclusion of qualified Itsekiri beneficiaries in pending and future educational and vocational deployments. He also called for a review of what he described as the absence of scholarship opportunities for qualified Itsekiri students, saying the situation had placed considerable financial pressure on affected families.
The Forum further appealed for a review of the N65,000 monthly stipend, which Mene said was inadequate in view of current economic realities and rising living costs. He also called for the appointment of an Itsekiri son or daughter as Personal Assistant or Special Assistant to the PAP Administrator, Dr Dennis Brutu Otuaro, to facilitate communication and engagement between the Itsekiri ex-agitators and the programme.
Mene urged the PAP management and relevant authorities to address the concerns through an open and transparent process, stressing that equitable access to human capital development programmes would promote fairness and strengthen confidence among communities participating in the Presidential Amnesty Programme.