MON, APRIL 9 2018-theG&BJOURNAL-The removal of the former Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh, did not come as a surprise to many, as his administration was clouded with various allegations and complaints.
“The appointment of Prof Charles Quaker Dokubo, was supposed to be a remedy to the issues facing the agency, but is turning out to be far from our expectations”, said Prince Ifiemi Berepubo a Trained Ex Agitator in a statement Sunday 8 April 2018
Prince Ifiemi revealed that Prof Dokubo has appointed his relation, Mrs. Hilda Dokubo, allegedly known card carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party to be his Executive Assistant, adding that Mrs. Hilda who is known for her involvement in the Nigerian Movie industry, has literally taken over the office as she currently sits and heads the tenders board of the agency, in the absence of the newly appointed coordinator.
Ifieme noted that, “An individual who has been a registered contractor with the Amnesty Office since inception, cannot hold such a sensitive position without bias. Mrs Hilda Executive Director/ CEO of The Centre For Creative Arts Education (CREATE) an NGO that has been awarded contracts to train hundreds of Amnesty Beneficiaries in the past. Information reaching us, has it that she has already started running the activities of the office and is set to incorporate three of her companies, in to the agency to handle, Monitoring and Evaluation, Media and Human Resources.”
He expressed surprise that “the three departments have been very effective in the past and are still fully functional departments in the Amnesty Office. How she wants to manipulate her way into scraping these existing departments is still a mystery.”
According to him, “currently all other activities of the office have been grounded as the new Executive has mandated the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to freeze the accounts of all contractors and vendors currently carrying out services for the agency, while she looks into the viability of continuing the various contracts. A contractor is doing this! This means that all empowerment exercises, training exercises, and educational exercises for beneficiaries, have been put on halt, as contractors cannot access funds to carry out their activities. This has left beneficiaries stranded and angry in various parts of the country.”
He called on Prof Charles Dokubo to hit the ground running, and take charge of the mandate given to him.
“The Amnesty Programme is not an office to play around with. You have to be ready and competent enough for the job. With the background and track record of Prof Charles, we believe he will see the light and rigorously drive the activities of the programme, to the benefit of the Niger Delta and all of us” Ifiemi asserted.
