Lufthansa Sacks 13 Nigerian Amnesty Pilots

The delay by President Muhamadu Buhari to appoint a new head to drive the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, has begun to take a toll on the beneficiaries of the scheme.In far away Germany, no fewer than 13 Nigerians from the Niger Delta region undergoing commercial point training at the Lufthansa Flight Training School in Frankfurt, have been sent away for non-payment of fees.
Vanguard learnt that the Nigerian pilots who would have graduated from the prestigious aviation training institution, were axed last Friday due to their inability to pay for sundry fees stipulated in their training manual.
The fees were for accommodation and training logistics.
Apart from that, six of the pilots who had already completed their training had their licenses withheld by the school.
Two of the students sent home for non-payment, had only one test to complete their Programme for Commercial Pilot Licence, one was in his final stage of the CPL test while four had just started their type rating test and would have completed next month.
A source at the PAP confirmed to Vanguard yesterday that there was money in the account of the agency with the Central Bank of Nigeria but that there was no signatory to authorize the payment to the beneficiaries since the exit of the former presidential aide, Kingsley Kuku.
President Buhari is yet to name a Special Adviser on Niger Delta, who doubles as the chairman of the PAP and is the chief executive of the agency.
Before leaving office in May this year, Kuku had written PMB to either allow him to pay the May financial obligations to avoid a breakdown of law and order or appoint a new signatory for the account.
However, no appointment has been made and the ex-militants who collect a monthly salary of N65,000 and the students who are spread around major universities around the world and Nigeria, are suffering, as a result.