Former Niger Delta militants under the aegis of Trained Ex-Agitators Forum have alleged the hijack of the new administration of the Presidential Amnesty Programme by Mrs. Hilda Dokubo, a relation of the newly appointed Coordinator of the Programme, Prof Charles Quaker Dokubo.

The allegation is contained in a statement issued on Sunday in Port Harcourt, signed on behalf of the group by Ifiemi Prince Berepubo, a Trained Ex-Agitator. The ex-agitators queried some of the early moves of Prof. Dokubo and Mrs. Hilda Dokubo, warning of the danger their actions pose to the Amnesty Programme.

The statement, a copy of which was made available to News Express, reads in part: “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.”

The statement revealed that Prof. Dokubo has appointed his relation, Mrs. Hilda Dokubo, allegedly known to be a card-carrying member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 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.”

The ex-agitators noted that “an individual who has been a registered contractor with the Amnesty Office since inception, cannot hold such a sensitive position without bias.” According to them, “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.”

The statement expressed surprised 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 the statement, “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.”

The ex-agitators called on Prof. 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,” the group said.

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