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Tag: Prof Charles Dokubo

  • Wake-up call for Ijaw youths on life-changing ideas

    Niger Delta youths got a wake-up a call yesterday from Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof Charles Dokubo.

    They were urged to think out of the box by initiating life-changing ideas through the PAP not only to improve on their lives but the communities and the environment they live in.

    Prof Dokubo spoke in Abuja, when he received a document, “The Ijaw youth development strategy and action plan 2019—2023: Nine goals to transform ourselves and our future”, a strategic document produced by the Ijaw Youth Consultative Forum (IYCF).

    The document offers a nine-goal development action plan to be achieved within four years.

    A statement by his spokesman Murphy Ganagana, said the special adviser promised to create a platform for collaboration and exploration of the ideas and plans in the development plan and urged youth of Niger Delta to initiate and proffer responsive ideas, plans, programmes and solutions to better their lives through the instrumentality of the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme.

    The statement reads: “It is interesting for me to listen to this conversation. It is good for young men and women of my area to sit down and do something good like this. I’m also happy in the sense that this is different from what we are used to.

    “It is not crying for no payment of stipends or calling for removal of Charles Dokubo. The fact is that as people of Niger Delta, it is now we’ve realised what we need and also what we can make use of within the ambit of this programme has been provided to us.”

    Dokubo admonished the youths to always go beyond viewing the PAP and other similar special purpose agencies of the Federal Government mere monthly stipend paying bodies instead of authorities that they should always constructively engage with development ideas and plans that would impact on their lives, families, communities and the nation.

    It went on: “There is no part of this country that has more agencies than the Niger Delta. No part of this country has a Ministry attached to that place. It is not about all these things.

    The IYCF Executive Director, Tonte Ibraye, said  group was formed and registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to work for the development of Ijaw nation to the benefit its youth. He noted that IYCF’s strategic action plan aligns with both Federal Government’s policies and United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

     

  • Our plan for amnesty programme, by Dokubo

    THOSE thinking that the payment of monthly stipends to former militants is all the Amnesty Programme means to the oil-rich region needs got it all wrong, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Prof Charles Dokubo, has said.

    The professor, who doubles as the Amnesty Programme Coordinator, said the office was created by the Federal Government as a means to an end and not an end in itself.

    He said: “In the past, the people of Niger Delta had claimed that they have not been given access to things that they should have benefited from their area, especially in the oil industry.

    “It has been discovered that these issues cannot be addressed by just paying stipends to the people. We must create an environment in which they can be educated, vocationally trained and empowered, so that they could attain heights and also have access to employment opportunities in the Programme.

    “Beyond the training, we must also look for job placements so that they can work and we can also stop their stipends once they have jobs. These are issues that we have always confronted and since we have dealt with the two Ds, the reintegration is a serious issue to managers of the amnesty programme.”

    Going forward, Dokubo said the task ahead is how to get those who have sharpened their skills in the various vocational schemes organised by the office gainfully employed and give back to the society by paying taxes.

    He explained: “For me, that mandate is what I want to do. We have done a lot of training, it is now how do we get jobs for these people that we have trained, so that they could earn salary, pay taxes, and also, you know about the multiplier effects of earnings.

    “It is not that the people of the Niger Delta are unemployable; they are employable, given the chances that are available. They could also attain greater heights and compete with others in every sector of the economy.”

    Citing the skills acquisition centres in Agadagba, Ondo State, Gelegele in Edo State and Kiaima, Bayelsa State, as parts of efforts develop the former agitators for the challenges ahead, the special adviser said that his mission is to site vocational centres in every state in the Niger Delta.

    He informed that the Amnesty Office has entered into partnership with some institutions, including the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI); Petroleum Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State and a Greek fishing firm to get the trainees certificated after their programmes.

    He said: “Actions will be taken; trainings will be done, and empowerment will be done immediately after. You don’t have to wait for years or wait to be trained and trained before you get your empowerment. So that is why I have called you today; that the Amnesty Office is ready to move forward.

    “We will be forming synergies with private and government institutions. Recently we sent names to the Nigerian Navy, so that they can employ people from the Niger Delta. We have sent names to the police, so they can be employed. These things we are doing so that people from the Niger Delta will stop depending on stipend.

    “Stipend does not develop a community. It only sustains the peace and not their future. What we want to do is to take people who have gotten jobs out of the stipends; make arrangements with multinational companies like Shell, Chevron and Mobil among others operating in the Niger Delta to work with us as part of their corporate social responsibility so that those who have been trained can also be given jobs.

    “Job placement is the next stage of my plans for the next year and I believe that if we can achieve that, we are going to do well. The people of the Niger Delta will not cry their old cries again that they have been marginalised.

    “The amount of money government has spent on this programme is a lot and I know that if we judiciously expend it, most people from the Niger Delta will benefit immensely. I want this programme to be a success, if not, our children yet unborn will keep asking us what we did for them if we say we have fought for Niger Delta.

    “This tale about being deprived should not be something we should keep saying. We have been given access. No part of Nigeria has more agencies than the Niger Delta. Now that we have these things, I will implore the people of Niger Delta to know that the sky is their beginning if they will work when they are given a job. Job placement is now the motto of the Amnesty Office and at the end, we will leave beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme gainfully employed and be made employable so that we can also know that we have done something for our people.

    “We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with to the NBTI so that our people will not just be trained by certain individuals, they will also be certificated by a known body and with their certificates they can used to secure jobs.

    “I have always said that the government can create the enabling environment for individuals to take the initiative of employing other citizens. That is what I want to do. I told you about the Greek fishing company that will train 2,500 of our delegates and they are going to employ 2000 of them. We are making strides in the right direction; so it is not just training for training sake; it is training to get a job.”

    On the challenges being faced and the way out, Dokubo said it has been herculean discouraging beneficiaries of the monthly stipend that they would be better as employees in other organisations.

    He identified the fear of earning a monthly wage that is below the 65, 000 they get from the amnesty scheme as a major challenge.

    Dokubo said: “On being absorbed into work after training, some graduates are being paid N40, 000, but if you give our people a job for N40, 000, they think about the stipends that they are earning. So, that is the challenge I am having. How can we appease their minds? Convince them that you can’t work endlessly, but you will grow with the work, it is not about the immediate gratification you want.

    “If your mind is so dependent on that stipend, it becomes difficult. So, that is the challenge, how do we reduce the dependence in the people that we are training. How do we also make them realise that employment is not only by government and private institutions; that they can also do something for themselves and also employ other people in the process?

    “And on that, my office is ready to give anybody who is ready to set up a business the necessary financial assistance because we cannot continue to have a long list of people depending on stipend. The stipend culture should be removed from our programme.

    Looking at the region where we are coming, the major sector for job is the oil industry. That is why the Agadagba Training Centre is there for middle and lower level oil and gas manpower to be absorbed by the companies. Also, Nigeria is no longer an oil producing country; it’s more of a gas producing country. So, these are the areas that we want them to be employed and if they grow with these new companies, I know that in 10 years to come, they will be highly rated in the industry and could also set up their own in most cases and run it.”

    The professor, who was appointed special adviser a year ago, spoke of his plan for the office.

    “What I want to do is to make sure that those that are trained must have jobs to go back to. Ordinary training is not my aim, and even for those who have been trained but have no jobs, they can be retrained for the right job in this technological environment.

    “That is what I’ll be remembered for; we are changing the dependence on stipends and training those who will work and earn money and that is why a vocational training centre in all states of the Niger Delta will be established. After that, we can go back and sleep with two eyes closed.”

  • Forum condemns attack on Dokubo

    A civil society group in the Niger Delta, The Foundation for Peace and Non-violence in Nigeria (TFPNVN), has condemned the attacks on Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof. Charles Dokubo, by some Ijaw indigenes.

    A statement by the group’s president, Onengiya Erokosima, said Prof. is an Ijaw son and any insult to him and the office he occupies is an insult to the entire Ijaw nation.

    Erokosima, who described Dokubo as a decent and honest son of Ijaw, lambasted the critics of the don, and accused them of having sinister motive.

    The statement reads: “The Foundation for Peace and Non-Violence in Nigeria condemns the spate of mudslinging against Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof. Charles Dokubo.

    “The Ijaw nation is being embarrassed by the attempts to soil the reputation of the Special Adviser by some Ijaw sons, either jostling for his position in the Presidency or having an interest to protect.

    “Prof. Dokubo is a decent man; he does not deserve such mudslinging. Nemesis will catch up with the perpetrators and peddlers of such lies against him.”

    Erokosima urged the naysayers to allow Dokubo focus on his responsibilities instead of distracting him with frivolities and unsubstantiated allegations.

  • Dokubo-must-go protest rocks Bayelsa

    Angry youths have asked Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof. Charles Dokubo, to resign his appointment following the recent looting of the Boro Town Amnesty Training complex in Kaiama, Bayelsa State.

    The placard-carrying youths appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to force Dokubo to step aside to allow an independent and unbiased investigation into the five-day looting.

    The aggrieved youths insisted that PAP officials must be probed for the “stage-managed theft to conceal fraud and non-existing contracts in the amnesty office”.

    Some of their placards read “Charles Dokuboh must be probed for the Kaiama amnesty facility looting”; “President Buhari, investigate Dokuboh for fraud”; “Fake contracts, all amnesty directors must go”; “There will be no safe haven for the corrupt”.

    Kingsley John, who led the protest under the auspices of Concerned Niger Deltans for Sustainable Development (CNDSD), wondered how a theft could happen for five days without any efforts to stop it.

    John, who led the protesters to the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Yenagoa, accused Dokuboh of mocking Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

    He said: “The looting lasted for five days without security men to stop the hoodlums. On February 14, Prof. Dokubo drove along the East-West Road and saw the looting. Sources said stakeholders who saw him pleaded with him to call for security but he drove away.

    “Dokubo later called Esther Boro to open the facility on his behalf. While the looting was going on at one end, Madam Esther and a few elders were opening the facility at another end in the same complex same day.

    “The Head of the Training Centre reported the theft to the police, three days after the incident and Dokubo was angry with him for reporting, and instructed him to withdraw his statement and the police report.

    “On February 15, the head of the centre wrote to the police in Bayelsa state to withdraw his statement and the report he had already filed.

    “Dokubo waited for almost one month after the looting before setting up a committee to investigate it. However, the people of Kaiama and Niger Deltans know the truth.”

    But the Amnesty Office, through its spokesman, Murphy Ganagana, dismissed the protest, saying it was stage-managed by attention-seekers. Ganagana, who described the allegations as baseless, reiterated that immediately the incident happened, Prof. Dokubo took actions to stop it.

    A statement by Ganagana reads: “These allegations are false, preposterous and a calculated attempt to smear Prof. Dokubo’s reputation. As a decent and incorruptible scholar of international repute, he has given hope to the Niger Delta people through fresh initiatives that would reposition the Amnesty Programme to its original mandate.

    “It is on record that the invasion and looting of the Kaiama training facility happened in the presence of security personnel, including policemen and soldiers deployed in the centre, but they were overwhelmed by the numerical strength of the thieves.

    “The incident was reported at the Divisional Police Headquarters at Kaiama, and later at the Bayelsa State police command headquarters in Yenagoa. The police launched intensive investigation and have some suspects in custody. None of the suspects has linked any official of the Amnesty Office to the crime.

    “We urge enemies of the Niger Delta, particularly ambitious politicians eyeing Prof. Dokubo’s office, to desist from smear campaigns and other ignoble acts capable of portraying the Niger Delta people in bad light. Sponsoring ill-motivated protests aimed at causing mischief and splashing muddy water on Dokubo will do no one any good…”

  • Two feared dead, others injured as community loots amnesty complex

    At least two persons were feared killed and many others injured at the weekend when community members broke into an office complex belonging to the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in Kaiama, Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

    The invasion and raid were reportedly carried out by residents of Orubiri, a host community of the amnesty yard located in Boro town, which was named after the late Ijaw hero, Isaac Adaka Boro.

    One of the invaders, said to have asthmatic condition, was reportedly choked to death in one of the warehouses, while a baby brought into the complex by a woman was said to have died during the stampede.

    The Amnesty Office built the expansive yard comprising many blocks of storey buildings to act as a liaison office for coordination of amnesty issues in the Niger Delta, including storage and distribution of starter packs to beneficiaries.

    But investigations showed that over 1,000 members of the host community invaded the complex, broke into the offices and looted equipment and starter packs worth billions of naira.

    The invaders were said to have overpowered the soldiers stationed at the entrance, pushed down the gate and engaged in free-for-all stealing of items.

    Efforts by the security operatives to stop them by shooting into the air were said to have proved abortive because of the high number of the invaders.

    It was gathered that youths and women participated in the looting and ensured that equipment bought for persons trained for skills were carted away.

    The marauders were said to have stolen everything, including air-conditioners, furniture and fittings and attempted to remove electric wires.

    An employee of the Amnesty Office, who spoke in confidence, said the looting started last Tuesday, adding that the equipment carted away were meant for beneficiaries from impacted communities in other states.

    He said PAP Coordinator Prof. Charles Dokubo inaugurated the distribution of the items in Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Warri, Delta State and Orubiri, the host community in Bayelsa State.

    He said following the inauguration, about 500 beneficiaries of the host communities got their items without crisis.

    “But we were surprised that the next day, youths and women from the same host communities, numbering over 1,000, assembled at the entrance of the complex and demanded their share of the items.

    “We explained to them that the items were meant for impacted communities in various states. They didn’t listen. They rather insisted that the items must be given to them. Most of them started calling people from other communities and before we knew it, the entrance was filled up. The person in charge of the place tried to call for security reinforcement.

    “Even when they came, there was nothing the security operatives could do. The people pulled down the gate and started looting the items in the warehouses. They engaged in the looting overnight till the next morning”, he said.

  • Amnesty: Buhari won’t forsake Niger Delta – Dokubo

    Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Prof. Charles Dokubo, said on Friday that a terminal date for the Presidential Amnesty Programme was not a card on President Muhammadu Buhari’s table.

    Speaking at a foundation laying ceremony for a vocational training centre of the Amnesty Programme at Gelegele, Edo State, Dokubo gave assurance that President Buhari would not leave the Niger Delta behind in his determination for transform the country.

    “Our people should know that they are all part of the Amnesty Programme which was set up by the late President Yar’Adua, who brought the demands and aspirations of the Niger Delta people to the bare. He knew that for a long time we had not gained from whatever was produced in the country. So this was the vehicle to achieve the two aims of peaceful development and economic enhancement of our people. And President Buhari has promised that this programme will not end.

    “He said he will never leave the Niger Delta people behind because without Niger Delta it will be difficult to maintain Nigeria. So let us know the role we are going to play in the country. But the only way we can walk tall is to make proper use of the Amnesty Programme; brother helping brother, sister helping sister, husband taking care of family, so that we can all become one large family in the Niger Delta. I have come here to put my footprint on this soil, and then as I go, nobody will forget me here because whatever programme I carry out, I will never forget Gelegele.

    “The people of Gelegele must benefit from this project. Their children will be sent to school and there will be peace in the community. Amnesty is a programme by the federal government to assist those of us who need help in different parts of the Niger Delta. Nobody owns it; you own it. I was just appointed to administer the programme, and each one of us here has a role to play in the amnesty programme and also to benefit from it”

    The ground-breaking ceremony for the Amnesty Programme Vocational Training Centre (VTU), Gelegele, preceded the launching, earlier on the same day, of a vocation training centre at Kaiama, Bayelsa State, which was completed, fully equipped by Prof. Dokubo within a short period in office.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Ijaw youths march in support of Buhari’s re-election

    Ijaw youths resident in the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Thursday embarked on solidarity march in support of President Muhammadu Buhari re-election.

    The youths led by President of the Ijaw Youth Association in Northern Nigeria, Mr Eniyekeye Akasah had stormed the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) office on a solidarity match in support of Buhari.

    The association also commended the Coordinator PAP, Prof. Charles Dokubo for his good work in the programme.

    They noted the solidarity match was to galvanize support for Buhari’s re-election in the forthcoming general election.

    Akasah said the group has scheduled a Town Hall meeting for Tuesday, January 29 in Abuja to endorse President Buhari for a second term, adding that plans are also underway to hold a three-million-man march in the nation’s capital.

    According to him, since Dokubo came into office, all the moribund training centres, has been revamped. So, the whole world should disregard the sponsored petitions and protests against him.

    “We are here to tell the whole world that President Buhari and Prof. Charles Dokubo have done well. For the past nine months that Mr President appointed him, he has done enough.

    “We are saying they should give him enough space to work. Give him time so that everybody will benefit from the programme.

    “We are queuing behind President Buhari and Prof. Dokubo because they’ve done well and will move Niger Delta to the Next Level,” he said.

    Receiving the youths, Dokubo expressed appreciation to them for publicly demonstrating support for him and Buhari.

    He assured them that the office would be used under his watch to transform youths in the Niger Delta region.

    “I was appointed to change the tune and narratives in the Niger Delta, so this office belongs to everybody from Niger Delta. You are supposed to benefit from it; to transform you.

    “It is not only about paying N65, 000. It is for making you to realise that you must work for the president through this office, which has been supported by him”.

    While urging them to be united and organised, Dokubo stressed his determination to ensure that the programme was refocused to achieve its original mandate and transform its beneficiaries to become change agents.

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    ”I will work hard for the Amnesty Programme; I will make sure that the people of Niger Delta benefit from this organisation. If they do not benefit, I would have also destroyed myself.

    “I am really elated. For you to have come out from your tight schedules and come to this office, I am ready to give you any support.

    “This is the support I need more than any other thing. This is your home. This is the capital of Niger Delta. So, let us work together.

    “Let us stop bringing down people. Let us work for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari,” Dokubo appealed.

  • Dokubo giving amnesty program strategic direction- NIPSS Director

    Director of Research at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, Prof.  Habu Galadima says the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Prof. Charles Dokubo, is providing the needed strategic leadership towards actualizing the objectives of the Presidential Amnesty Program.

    He expressed his conviction while delivering a keynote address at a four-day capacity building training for executive and senior management of the Amnesty Program themed, ‘Change and Organizational Renewal: Strategic Leadership and Employee Performance Development Program.’

    In a keynote address on ‘Transforming Regional Insecurity through Sustainable Social Integration Program for ex-agitators in the Niger Delta’, Prof. Galadima, who is also the Chief Operating Officer of the Political Parties Leadership and Policy Development Centre of NIPSS, lauded the achievements of the Amnesty Programme under Dokubo’s watch, but urged the Federal Government to see the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programme as a continuum.

    “Transformation can be deepened to enhance the reintegration process of Niger Delta ex-agitators; neglecting demobilized ex-agitators can lead to social unrest and national insecurity,” Galadima emphasized.

    “The Amnesty Program must be seen as a continuum.”

    While expressing dismay that the human security factors that triggered the armed struggle by the ex-agitators are yet to be addressed in the Niger Delta, he said no amount of funds is too much for the Amnesty Program to maintain peace and security in the hitherto restive region: “Without security in the Niger Delta, there cannot be security in Nigeria.”

    In his opening remarks, Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator, Amnesty Program, Prof. Charles Dokubo, expressed President Muhammadu Buhari’s determination to ensure that the narrative of the Niger Delta is turned around.

    He said the Presidential Amnesty Program was set up basically for the maintenance of peace and security as well as development of the Niger Delta area.

    “The Amnesty Programme was set up as a necessity and so far, it has done well. The Programme is a vehicle to be driven to achieve the two key objectives.

    “Slowly but surely, we shall overcome the challenges we are facing. I believe the people I am working with are passionate and have the same vision and drive to make the Niger Delta people proud”.

    Dokubo said the Amnesty Program vocational training centres at Agadagba, Ondo State, and Kaiama, Bayelsa State, are ready to come on stream and would be commissioned in the next two weeks for the training of beneficiaries of the Program awaiting deployment, while work is ongoing to complete three other centres.

    “We are opening the Ondo vocational training centre; it will be opened in the next two weeks. It will be a shining light of the Amnesty Program.

    “After this training, the participants will have a better focus to tell the story of Amnesty; if they address issues objectively, I believe we are on the way to higher heights.”

  • Amnesty program will transform Niger Delta, says Dokubo

    Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Prof. Charles Dokubo, on Tuesday expressed optimism that new policies and objectives for Presidential Amnesty Programme under his watch will transform the Niger Delta region.

    He however, warned that the Amnesty Programme cannot effectively serve its purpose if the people of the Niger Delta are not bonded by a common interest to develop the region.

    He said this during a courtesy visit by a delegation of the South-south Chiefs, Elders and Opinion Leaders Association of Nigeria (SSCEOLAN) that occurred in Abuja on Wednesday.

    Dokubo said that the Niger Delta region will attain giant strides if the people can positively utilize the instrumentality of the Amnesty Programme provided by the federal government.

     “When the federal government brought this programme where we are training our people and sending them abroad, they did it because it is a necessary action.

    “So, we are going to carry out this programme in an all-inclusive manner. Wherever you are from the Niger Delta, you must be part of this programme.

    “I’m here to carry out what I call reintegration, training, retraining and bringing out Niger Delta people so that they can be as qualified as any other person in Nigeria.”

    While expressing dismay over what he described as ‘pull-him-down syndrome’ prevalent among the people of the Niger Delta, Dokubo urged them to be united and work for a common goal.

    “I cannot claim to know everything, but I also know that with your experience you can always direct me on the right path so that we can do things the right way.

    “I came into this place not to criticize anyone but to start from where I was appointed. What I met here is not what I’m here to talk about, but we are all from the Niger delta.

    “Our idea of pulling down people is too much, and I will not be part of that. For me, where I want Niger Delta people to look into is how we can use this office to benefit our people.

    “It is not about personal gains; it is about community development. Let us stop agonizing and start organizing, because if we do that, we will help ourselves.

    “The best thing I have seen in this organization is that we come from different places, but we have one objective.

    “If we can have one objective in the Niger delta, half of our problems will be solved. My fear is that after 20 years, if we cannot uphold the Niger delta, we cannot empower our people, then Amnesty will kill Niger delta.

    “I always tell people like that, because the type of behavior I have seen in this place, where personal interest overrides regional interest, really beats my imagination.”

    Dokubo gave assurance of his determination to deliver on the mandate handed him by President Muhammadu Buhari, who he said has the interest on the Niger Delta region at heart and emphasized that due process and statutory provisions will be his guiding principles in the performance of his duties.

    “I want to do my best for the people, but you will hear stories. Since I came to this office, I have not touched the Data from which monies are paid because I don’t want to touch it. If I touch it, there will be problem.

    “There are some people who are earning money that they are not even supposed to earn. If I say I want to dismantle it, then I will bring experts to come and decipher, assemble and analyse the Data. It will take six months and people will not be paid their stipends and allowances.

    “Since I resumed office, I have been paying stipends as at when due. I have not failed. There was a particular month I even paid for two months.

    “I don’t want any crisis in our region. It will not be under my watch that will happen. So, whatever we are doing, let us keep the Niger delta in the forefront of our thoughts. I will do my best.

    “My business is to do a particular job so that people will gain from it, so when I go, you will stand up and say there was a man called Charles Dokubo.

    “I know that if you can use this vehicle that has been provided by the federal government for us, I think we can go places.

    “My policies and objectives are to transform the Niger Delta; we are not going to depend on stipends, we are going to get jobs, job placements.

    “This is the focus of my administration. We are doing some seaman training with a Greek company that is going to build ships in an open port; we have signed the MOU and all that but if there is also an indigenous idea that we can also develop and use it for our people, I will take a positive look towards it.

    “It is better that we look for what we want instead of looking for money for transport.

    “And to be frank to all of you, most of the people carrying out protests, they are not in the Data of the Amnesty Programme.

    “Let us say you fought for emancipation of the Niger Delta, as a result, you have a chance to go to university, you say you cannot go, you give it to your son or brother to go, yet, you still want to earn that N65, 000 naira while we are paying school fees and everything?

    “If you try to tell them that it is wrong, it is as if you are against them, they say it is our money. Yes, it is your money, but you must do something to earn it. Nobody is taking money from Niger Delta people.”

  • Niger Delta leaders warn against attack on Amnesty boss

    Some concerned leaders of the Niger Delta region at the weekend warned stakeholders of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) against verbal attacks on the Coordinator of the scheme, Prof. Charles Dokubo.

    The leaders in a communiqué at the end of a stakeholders’ meeting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said Dokubo should not be a victim of a “pull-him-down” syndrome.

    The meeting was attended by monarchs and youth leaders from the region.

    In the communique which was signed by Chief Mike Loyibo and Prof. Benjamin Okaba, the leaders said Dokubo deserved the support of stakeholders to enable him succeed with the scheme.

    They commended President Muhammadu Buhari for Dokubo’s appointment, describing the amnesty boss as “a round peg in a round hole.”

    According to them since Dokubo assumed office, he had taken satisfactory steps to advance the course of the programme.

    They said: “From the measures he (Dokubo) has embarked on so far, we believe he has the desire to advance the goals and objectives of the programme as well as taking it to the next level. So, we are solidly behind him and we hereby pass a vote of confidence on him”.

    The leaders also urged Buhari not to toy with the funding of the programme in the interest of peace and security in the region.

    They argued that the peace being witnessed in the region was as a result of the amnesty programme.

    They appealed to the President to address some of the issues raised concerning the development of the region during their last meeting with him

    They said: “We also want to use this medium to remind President Muhammad Buhari to address our issues raised concerning the Niger Delta during our last meeting with him as only the Maritime University has been addressed.

    “President Buhari should also know that funding of the amnesty programme is the key towards ensuring the prevailing peace being witnessed in the region, hence this should be upheld.

    “We also want the boys in the creeks to be patient with President Buhari by continuing to give peace a chance for the overall development of the region.”