A Niger Delta-based nongovernmental organisation which goes by the name, Concerned Niger Deltans for Sustainable Development (CNDSD) has called for the sack of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, and Coordinator of the Amnesty programme, Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo over the looting of the N60 billion Amnesty Vocational Training Center at Boro Town in Bayelsa state.
CNDSD based its call on what it alleged is the attempt by Professor Charles Dokubo to cover up his tracks with the looting of the center. The group alleged that the procurement process and equipping of the center was stripped in corruption as most of the contracts to equip the center were non-existent.
The leaders of the group, Kingsley John who led his members to protest through the street of Yenogoa, the Bayelsa state capital, alleged that the looting of the facility lasted five days, with no police or military personnel on the ground to stop the hoodlums, said the Amnesty boss has serious questions to answer to absolve himself of complicity in the looting.
He said: “We humbly call on the father of our country, and our President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to have Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo, Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, step aside for criminal investigation to commence into the uninterrupted five days’ looting of the N60billion Boro Town Training Complex including non-existent supply contracts, persistent stealing, fraud, corruption, and intimidation of whistleblowers and other stakeholders at the Niger Delta Amnesty Office.
“The uninterrupted five days’ looting of the N60billion Boro Town Training Complex is unprecedented. No group of persons can go into the University of Abuja or the University of Ibadan or the University of Lagos and steal everything for five days without the security agencies stopping them and arresting them.
“Professor Dokubo directed the head of the Boro Town Vocational Training Centre, Mr. Jude Gbaboyor, to open the warehouse where supplied items are kept and they arranged with hoodlums to cart away items previously supplied to cover up their fraud. The move was to enable Dokubo, his front men and the director of procurement, and other senior management staff in the Amnesty office to claim that the N13billion worth of supplied items has been stolen by hoodlums.
“Prof. Dokubo later called Mrs. Esther Boro, the daughter of the late Ijaw hero and legend, Major Isaac Jasper Adaka-Boro, to commission the facility on his behalf. While the looting was going on at one end, Madam Esther Boro and a few elders she gathered were commissioning the facility at another end in the same complex, all on February 14, 2019.
“Mr. Gbaboyor, Head of the Training Centre, reported the looting to the Police in Bayelsa State on February 14, 2019, three days after the looting of the N60billion Vocational Training in what appears to be a well-choreographed move. After the Head of the Boro Town Vocational Training Centre, Mr. Gbaboyor reported the matter to the Police in Bayelsa State, Prof. Dokubo became very angry at Mr. Jude Gbaboyor for reporting the matter to the Police. Prof. Dokubo then instructed Gbaboyor to immediately withdraw his statement and the Police report that had already been filed with the Police in Bayelsa State. On February 15, 2019, Gbaboyor wrote to the Police in Bayelsa State to withdraw his statement and the report that he had already filed with the Police.
“Prof. Dokubo waited for almost one month after the looting before setting up a fraudulent committee to investigate the looting. However, the people of Kaiama and Niger Deltans know the truth that Prof. Dokubo orchestrated the looting to cover-up his non-existent supply contracts of N13billion as reported in the media.”
