The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has described as false reports in the media that the federal government has released amounts totalling N56 billion to the Presidential Initiatives in the Northeast, PINE, and Victims Support Fund, VSF, respectively, for the rehabilitation of Boko Haram insurgency victims.

NEMA was reacting to a media report that its Director General, Sani Sidi, made the disclosure in Tehran, the Iranian capital, during a meeting of Safe School Leaders.

“The agency wishes to state that the said story was misquoted, misrepresented and out of context with what the Director General presented at the second meeting of Safe School Leaders meeting in Tehran, Iran,” Sani Datti, spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement.

“In the presentation, the Director General said, ‘The present government of Nigeria has given her assurance on the sustainability and continuity of the Safe School Initiative programme, and other interventions such as the Presidential Initiative in the North East (PINE), the sum of N3Billion and the Victims Support Fund (VSF) the sum of N53 Billion’”, the statement added.

The report had indicated that the government released N3 billion to PINE and N53 billion to the VSF.