The Nigerian government spent N83.5 billion on the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) between January and September 2025, according to the Federal Government’s Budget Expenditure and Fiscal Account for the first nine months of the year.
The expenditure, recorded under recurrent non-debt spending, represents a substantial portion of the N115 billion allocated to the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the full 2025 financial year.
According to data from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) and the Budget Office of the Federation, the programme had a nine-month budget provision of N86.25 billion based on quarterly extrapolation.
Of this amount, N83.48 billion was recorded as expenditure during the first three quarters of the year, representing 96.8 per cent of the amount projected for the period.
The figure also means that the government had spent about 72.6 per cent of the programme’s N115 billion full-year budget by the end of September.
The Presidential Amnesty Programme was established as part of the Federal Government’s response to militancy and unrest in the Niger Delta. Its activities include programmes aimed at reintegrating former militants, among others.
The data showed that the Presidential Amnesty Programme recorded N20.98 billion in expenditure in the first quarter, N31.25 billion in the second quarter and another N31.25 billion in the third quarter.
This brought its cumulative expenditure for the nine-month period to N83.48 billion.
In the first quarter, the programme exceeded its quarterly budget benchmark of N28.75 billion by N2.23 billion, representing an 8.7 per cent variance.
In the second quarter, it recorded N31.25 billion against a quarterly provision of N28.75 billion, while the same amount was recorded in the third quarter.
The cumulative expenditure of N83.48 billion was only N2.77 billion below the N86.25 billion nine-month budget provision.
The high level of spending on the Presidential Amnesty Programme contrasts sharply with the execution of several other areas of Federal Government expenditure contained in the same fiscal account.
For instance, capital expenditure by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) stood at only N17.71 billion as of September, against a nine-month target of N4.288 trillion.
This represented just about 0.4 per cent execution of the MDAs’ nine-month capital expenditure target.
Similarly, overhead costs for MDAs stood at N290.02billion against a nine-month budget provision of N912.25 billion, while other service-wide votes recorded N115.57 billion against a nine-month target of N793.40 billion.
The spending pattern places the Presidential Amnesty Programme among the areas with relatively high budget execution during the period, particularly when compared with capital projects being implemented by MDAs.
While the PAP had utilised 96.8 per cent of its nine-month projected provision, capital expenditure by MDAs had recorded only 0.4 per cent execution against its corresponding nine-month target.
N339m spent on PAP stakeholders’ training
Earlier, a review of the public payments portal, Govspend, by SaharaReporters showed that the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs spent N339 million on capacity-building training for stakeholders of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
According to the payment details, the transaction was made on June 19, 2026, by the “Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta”.
The payment description stated: “Being payment for conduct of capacity building training for 120 Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) stakeholders batch 3 held in Abuja from March 23rd.”
Previously, SaharaReporters reported that despite fiscal regulations in Nigeria that discourage the payment of government funds into private accounts, the Federal Government paid more than N2 billion into the personal accounts of four ex-militants, according to a review of transactions on the Govspend portal for the 2025 fiscal year.
On April 22, 2025, a sum of N33.2 million was paid to ex-militant Odiki Jacob with the payment description: “Being payment of march,2025 bulk stipends to camp leader of Ekpomopolo Tobi Camp phase 1, for 500 delegates as approved by the administrator.”
Before that payment, N31 million had been transferred into his account on March 18, 2025. Earlier, on February 27, 2025, another N33.2 million was paid into his personal account.
Similarly, on May 15, 2025, a further N32.5 million was paid into his account. On June 25, 2025, he received another N32.5 million.
Odiki also received N33.2 million on July 25, 2025, and an additional N33.2 million on October 28, 2025.
On November 24, 2025, a sum of N32.5 million was also paid into his account.
In total, Odiki received N228.8 million in 2025.
Another ex-militant, Harry Tonye Ikemenjeme, received a payment of N33.5 million on April 22, 2025.
Dasimaka Adokiye Sami received N186.3 million on April 22, 2025, with the payment description: “Being payment of March, 2025, bulk stipend to the camp leader of Ateke camp phase 1, 2802 delegates as approved by the administrator.”
Earlier, on February 27, 2025, he received N186.3 million. On March 18, 2025, another N173.7 million was paid into his account.
On May 15, 2025, he received N182.1 million, while another N182.1 million was paid into his account on June 22, 2025.
On July 25, 2025, a sum of N186.3 million was paid into his private account, while another N186.3 million was transferred to him on October 28, 2025.