By Lanre Oloyede
A pro- transparency and prominent Non-governmental body- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has carpeted the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Amnesty Affairs for Niger Delta region Mr. Charles Dokubo for justifying the wasteful, claim that the office will spend a whopping N88 million to set up 22 barbing saloons for repentant ex-armed militants
The group in a statement yesterday in Abuja said President Muhammadu Buhari(GCFR) must stop the heist from ever happening or he loses his claim of any kind of anti-graft crusade.
HURIWA through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to beam it’s searchlight on the financial transactions of the Amnesty office because it has become a cesspool of corruption.
It noted that recently, facilities set up for the benefits of youths of Niger Delta in Bayelsa state were vandalised and property worth over a billion Naira carted away.
While the perpetrators of the theft are still roaming free it now shamelessly seek to justify the illogical and irrational bogus expenditure of setting up barbing saloons at very earth shaking and exorbitant rates.
“Saloon business is not the immediate needs of the grossly marginalised and wantonly neglected Niger Delta region. Niger Delta youth should be empowered to become marine engineers and petroleum technologists or empowered by granting them oil well licences.
HURIWA stated that on no condition should the management of the Amnesty office be allowed to embark on such wasteful venture except if there is someone embedded directly in the office of the President who wants to corner substantial amount of the stated but obviously over inflated and over bloated budget for setting up 22 barbing saloons.
HURIWA said: “Dokubo who claims to be a professor must be presuming that his ’22 super barbers’ would be engaged to handle the multi-million Naira annual barbing contracts included in the budget of the state house in Abuja to handle the hairstyling needs of Mr. President Muhammadu Buhari.
The attempt to tie a wool of confusion on the eyes of docile Nigerians by the Amnesty office to justify the planned heist of N88 million in the name of empowering 22 barbers and beauty experts is both preposterous and odious. We call on the EFCC to wake up and go after those guys in Amnesty office. The group said.
