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Former Niger Delta militants under the aegis of Trained Ex Agitators Forum has accused the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Prof. Charles Quaker Dokubo of allowing erstwhile Nollywood actress, Hilda Dokubo of literally taking over the Presidential Amnesty office.
They alleged that Dokubo,“has appointed his relation, Mrs. Hilda Dokubo, allegedly known card carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party 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”.
This was contained in a statement signed by Ifiemi Prince Berepubo, who called on the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs to hit the ground running by taking charge of the mandate given to him as the PAP is not an office to be toyed around with.
But when contacted, the Media Consultant to the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Wabiye Idoniboyeobu told DAILY POST that Hilda appears to be featuring prominently in the office because she knows a lot about the workings of the office, stressing that the President’s adviser is only relying on her for advice as the office is a very complicated one.
Berepubo’s statement reads in part, “An individual who has been a registered contractor with the Amnesty Office since inception, cannot hold such a sensitive position without bias. 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 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.”
“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 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.”
Reacting to the allegations raised by the former militants, Idoniboyeobu said, “The new man (Prof. Charles Quaker Dokubo) is just settling in. Hilda is someone that is abreast with some of the activities of the programme from inception. Possibly what he is trying to do is to give her the opportunity to advise him on certain things because the amnesty office is a very complicated office. You really need someone that understands the structure of the office to really advise. Some people are trying to complain that she is his sister and all that but I think we should in this age forget about where a person comes from and focus on the competence of an individual. Hilda is a Nigerian. Her company trained a couple of ex-agitators in the past. She was a vendor in the office of PAP”.
Speaking on the claims that Hilda is related to Professor Dokubu, the media consultant told our correspondent that, “She is not his sister. People are alleging that she is sister to Professor Dokubo because of the surname or maybe because they are both from the Kalabari tribe”.
DAILY POST had reported Dokubo as disclosing that he would focus more on the reintegration aspect of the programme, adding that he would not accommodate new entrants into the programme.
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