By Jennifer Omiloli
The Presidential Amnesty Office under the leadership of Prof. Charles Dokubo has resorted to cover-ups and silence over the invasion and looting of its multi-billion naira vocational training centre in Boro Town Kolokuma/Opokuma local Government area of Bayelsa state
The vocational centre, which is the main hub of the amnesty training activity for the Niger Delta region was attacked and broken into last week and virtually all the equipment warehoused in the centre carted away.
Investigation by the Nigerian Pilot indicates that the looting of the centre was probably carried out by some militants under the schemed who feel aggrieved about the unsavoury way the current leadership of the programme have been handling issues of ex-militants welfare.
A source who spoke with our correspondent revealed that many of the beneficiaries of the amnesty office training programme have been having it rough because for several months running their stipends have not been paid, even when they are paid it is usually not paid in full.
The situation has created a lot of bad blood between the management of the scheme and the ex-militants. The source further alleged that the aggrieved ex-militants may have decided to vent their anger on the management of the amnesty programme by breaking into the warehouse and carting away valuable vocational training equipment.
Investigation further revealed that some of the security personnel drafted to secure the equipment actually took part in looting or looked away while the ex-militants were having a field day.
Our correspondent also gathered that the training centre is equipped with State-of-the-art training equipment, designed to bridge identifiable training gaps and provide a wide array of training in vocational skills like: plumbing, catering, bricklaying, carpentry and woodworks, painting, fashion designing, Shoemaking and leather works amongst others.
The centre has fully furnished and functional classrooms, practical training wing, an administrative block, library, clinic among others. The centre is also equipped with a 60 room hostel for students, a multipurpose hall, cafeteria, etc.
As the hub of its programme of rehabilitation and re-integration of ex-militants the centre was at the heart of the Presidential Amnesty Office in the Niger Delta.
The items warehoused in the centre were also meant to be distributed to other states in the Niger Delta who are beneficiaries of the vocational training programme. Some of the equipment which were reportedly carted away include starter packs which were part of an empowerment package for ex militants who had already undergone training and were stored at the centre.
The items include generating sets, industrial sewing machines, television sets, gas cookers and cylinders, deep freezers, water storage tanks, aluminium roofing sheets, pumping machines, industrial ovens, panels, machine tools, among others.
Also speaking on the unfortunate development a source who resides in the area laid the blame of the theft on the Amnesty office, she noted that the theft of the items has been going on for a long time and the Amnesty office was either negligent or culpable because they couldn’t have claimed that they were not aware of what has been going on before the grand heist.
Calls put through to the spokesperson of the Amnesty Office, Murphy Ganagana where not answered as at press time. Calls also placed to the Coordinator of the Amnesty Office Prof. Charles Dokubo were not answered either.
