A new plot has been hatched aimed at tarnishing the image of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo.
The plot, which is already in its advanced stage, is orchestrated by individuals who have failed in their bids to force Dokubo to award contracts to them.
Dokubo has several times turned down overtures by those behind the plot.
Now to get at him, they have resorted to blackmailing him.
In one of the campaigns of calumny, an online portal had reported the award of fictitious contracts to the tune of N3.2 billion within a period of one month to two companies allegedly fronting for the Amnesty Programme coordinator.
But a statement signed by the Special Assistant on Media to the office, Murphy Ganagana, urged members of the public to ignore the alleged N3.2 billion contract scam report.
The statement said that it was not the wish of the agency to “dissipate valuable time and energy in recapping the wholesomely fallacious report”.
According to Ganagana, the online portal from which the story emanated had become notorious for purveying fake news and promoting blackmail to nauseating level, adding that the attempt to drag the image of the highly revered wife of the President, Hajia Aisha Buhari, and the National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno, to the mud to score a point was appalling.
The statement reads in part: “To put the records straight, we wish to state as follows: It is true that a contract for empowerment of 300 Niger Delta youths in oil and gas instrumentation was awarded to Messrs. Glassfa Continental Ltd, and another contract for training and empowerment of 400 delegates in coastal fishing was awarded to Innotek Royal Services Limited.
“However, the two contracts in question were beyond the threshold of the Special Adviser to the President and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme. Therefore, in line with statutory guidelines and regulations, a Due Process No Objection was sought and obtained from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) vides a letter OSAPND/GCL/VT/2018/11010 dated 19th October, 2018. Consequently, approval for award of contracts to the two companies was granted by the BPP.”
It added that contrary to the allegation that payment had been made to the two companies even though work has not commenced, “we wish to state with emphasis that no dime has been paid to any of the two companies. It is pertinent to state that processes leading to payment of 15 per cent of contract sum are yet to be completed for the two companies which have not been handed delegates for training. Files of the two companies on the contracts have not reached the Prof. Dokubo’s table.
“On the allegation of 30 companies discovered to have been perpetrating contract fraud worth billions of Naira by an external auditing committee said to have been inaugurated by Prof. Dokubo, it existed only in the imagination of the publishers of Pointblanknews as NO such committee was inaugurated at the Amnesty Office under Prof. Dokubo, and no contract fraud was unearthed at any time.”
The office of the Presidential Amnesty Programme under Dokubo has witnessed substantial achievements in the last one year.
On assumption of office on March 13, 2018, Dokubo, an erudite professor and nuclear scientist, had a clear mandate: to retool the programme to make it more robust and impactful for the enlisted ex-agitators in the Niger Delta with the ultimate goal of achieving sustainable peace and development in all facets of the region.
Barely three months on, precisely in 100 days, leaders and stakeholders in the Niger Delta were convinced of President Muhammadu Buhari’s quest to transform the region through the instrumentality of the amnesty programme with the appointment of Prof. Dokubo who they describe as a messiah that has come to chart a new path for the programme. Their conviction is apparently based on his sterling performance and achievements within a short period.
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