The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be paying former Niger Delta militants directly, as the President Muhammadu Buhari resumes amnesty payments.

Piriye Kiyaramo, the amnesty programme’s media officer, made the disclosure on Monday in Abuja, stating that the government will also be paying tuition for the ex-militants.

“Payments of stipends to the ex-militants resumed this Monday. The payments are done directly from the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) to their bank accounts,” Reuters quoted Kiyaramo to have said.

Kiyaramo said the payment also includes tuition for those studying abroad. According to him, “their last payment was in February this year. Now we are clearing all outstanding and the payments.”

Each of the former militant is entitled, under the amnesty deal, to N65,000 naira monthly (over three times the country’s minimum wage), in addition to a job training, while those schooling get more money for their tuition.

But due to budget crisis and graft, the government had originally planned to cut the amnesty by two-thirds and limit cash payments.

Kiyaramo added  that in February, Nigeria stopped the payments for former militants who agreed under a 2009 amnesty to stop blowing up crude pipelines in exchange for cash.

But Niger Delta Avengers, the group that has claimed responsibility for the majority of attacks dating back to January, said it had not agreed a truce.

Since then the group has said it would not take part in talks unless international mediators were involved.

Hence, since the halt in the amnesty programme, Nigeria has recorded over 4,000 pipeline vandalisation activities, crippling the country’s production capacity.