NIGER DELTA: IS AMNESTY A SCAM?

C O N F I D E N T I A L LAGOS 000325 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/31/2019 TAGS: PGOV KCOR KCRM NI SUBJECT: NIGER DELTA: IS AMNESTY A SCAM? Classified By: Consul General Donna Blair, Reasons 1.4 (B,D) ¶1. (C) On July 28, Allen Onyema, the national chairman of the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN),which provided nonviolence training to militant youth from the Niger Delta for the last three years, told PolOff that the Executive Assistant to First Lady Tuai Yar'Adua had approached him with a request that FEHN work with her own NGO, Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF),to provide jointly "rehabilitation and reintegration training" for up to "10,000" militants taking advantage of the government's amnesty offer End Summary. ¶2. (C) Onyema stated that WAYEF has no competence nor experience in providing nonviolence or other transformational training for violent and criminal youth, and concluded that his organization was being set up to serve as a "front" for illicitly diverting funds allocated for militant rehabilitation. ¶3. (C) Comment: With militant strength widely estimated at no more than 3,000, a rehabilitation scheme budgeted for 10,000 seems suspiciously extravagent. Ex-militants are expected to receive a GON monthly stipend, reportedly a relatively robust 55,000 naira, which would provide a significant incentive to inflate the personnel numbers akin to the countless "ghost" employees in other government entities. End comment. ¶4. (U) This cable has been cleared by Embassy Abuja. BLAIR