Amnesty office denies alleged N3.2b contract scam

5Specual Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Co-ordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Prof. Charles Dokubo, has denied the office’s involvement in the alleged N3.2 billion contract scam published by an online news portal.

Dokubo, in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Murphy Ganagana, described the report as wholesomely fallacious churned out as ‘expose’ by Pointblanknews, an online portal, which has become notorious as a purveyor of fake news and promoting blackmail to nauseating level.

The statement reads in part: “We urge members of the public to discountenance the report in its entirety as it is the handiwork of an angry and hungry bunch whose attempt to coerce Prof. Dokubo to award them contracts was courageously rebuffed by him. They have threatened and vowed to fight dirty to remove him from office, but their evil machinations will come to naught.

“The allegation that Prof. Dokubo has been boasting that he cannot be sacked as a result of his ties with the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the First Lady is a dangerous and wicked lie calculated at inciting and creating gullies of bad blood in the cordial relationship between Dokubo and Monguno, a highly respected, disciplined and incorruptible military officer with impeccable and enviable records in a career that spanned over three decades.

“It is true that a contract for empowerment of 300 Niger Delta youths in oil and gas instrumentation was awarded to Messrs. Glassfa Continental Limited, 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 Co-ordinator, 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 October 19, 2018. Consequently, approval for award of contracts to the two companies was granted by the BPP.

“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 had been paid to any of the two companies.”

Meanwhile, Ganagana, in a chat with journalists in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said the office had trained and empowered over 1,165 Niger Delta former militants enrolled in the amnesty programme from March 2018 till date.

He said the Amnesty office had already engaged five Greek firms to train about 2,500 amnesty delegates, out of which 2000 will be employed at the end of the training.

He also disclosed that 103 students are currently studying various courses in foreign institutions in the world courtesy Amnesty office, adding that the office, for the first time, had empowered residents of communities impacted during the Niger Delta crisis.

According to him: “One thousand two hundred and thirty beneficiaries were offered scholarship and deployed in 11 partnering institutions in Nigeria on January 2019, while 54 beneficiaries are set to be deployed on scholarship offshore this year.