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.

While reiterating the objectives of the Amnesty Programme, Dokubo urged the people of Niger Delta to be united in pursuit of a common vision and support President Buhari for rapid development of the region through the instrumentality of the Amnesty Programme and other interventionist agencies.

Prof. Dokubo said: “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 commissioning, 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.

It was the hallmark of week-long activities embarked upon by Prof. Dokubo, including the commissioning of the Amnesty Programme liaison office in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and the distribution of starter packs for empowerment of residents of communities impacted during the Niger Delta crises.

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