Ex-militants Petition Dogara Over Alleged Embezzlement In Presidential Amnesty Office

For allegedly misappropriating their monthly N65,000 stipend, ex-militants under the auspices of Niger Delta Ex-agitators Forum (NDEF) have petitioned the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, calling for the probe of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

The ex-militants are demanding the investigation of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Prof. Charles Dokubo, who is also the head of the amnesty programme.

They are also calling for the summon of other principal staff of the Amnesty office to the National Assembly to give account of how funds accruing to the office are appropriated.

The group, in a petition through their counsel N.S. Egin, and obtained by BigPen Online on Friday, are alleging that officials of the programme have been involved in corrupt practices, either by way of denying many genuine ex-agitators their monthly N65,000 stipend or refusing to enlist them in the programme.

They alleged that the officials have had their names or slots either sold to persons originally not captured at the inception of the programme or given to their cronies.

The petition further alleged that attempts so far made to convince the Coordinator of the PAP, Prof. Dokubo, to carry an investigation of the suspicious activities within the office had been unsuccessful.

“Our Client have made enquiries as to Modus Operandi of the Presidential Amnesty Office and have discovered that there is gross misappropriation of amnesty funds by officials of the programme with the connivance of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Prof. Charles Dokubo.

“Our Client have records of its members who have been denied of their financial entitlements ranging from monthly stipends of Sixty-Five Thousand Naira (N65, 000.00) to refusal for enlistment into the amnesty training programme.

“Our Client Believe strongly that the money meant for this category of ex-agigators are diverted to personal use of the amnesty co-ordinator and his team. Most of the genuine beneficiaries of the programme have been stepped down while their slots are filled with either fictitious names or names of cronies who were never part of the programme from the on set.

“In many cases, the names of the genuine beneficiaries are used by some of the ‘militant generals’ to syphone funds with the active participation of the officials of the amnesty office. For the records find attached records of ex-agigators who have been denied their financial benefits. Our Client have made several attempts to get the amnesty office currently led by Prof. Charles Dokubo to carry out comprehensive internal audit/investigation so as to fix this problem but to no avail”, the petition read.

All efforts  to get comments from the media aide to the Presidential Amnesty Programme’s boss, Mr Murphy Ganagana, proved abortive.