Amgbare Ekaunkumo, Yenagoa
The Chairman of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, King Bubaraye Dakolo and a peace advocacy group in the Niger Delta, the Movement for Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta (MSDND) have called on the Federal Government to focus on the re-construction of the Vandalized Presidential Amnesty Vocational Training Centre located in Boro – Town, Kaiama in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The Presidential Amnesty Training Cntre located in Kaima town in Bayelsa was vandalized and looted in Febuary, 2019.
According to Dakolo and the MSDND, despite the petitions to the State Commissioner of Police, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and Court order subsisting against the fifteen companies allegedly responsible for the five days looting of the Presidential Amnesty Training Centre, the re-construction of the training center will ensure that amnesty beneficiaries are trained and gainfully employed to eradicate agitation in the region.
While the Chairman of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, King Bubaraye Dakolo described the call for FG to rebuild the Amnesty Training Centre as welcome and timely, he called asked the FG to ensure that those behind the looting of the centre are brought to book, assuring the FG that the people of the state will ensure that the reconstructed centre will be protected in liaison with the traditional institution and the youths.
Dakolo said while the Federal Government is making funds available through the Amnesty office for the rebuilding of the training centre, “they should also show us the contractors involved in the fraud and looting of the centre.”
National Coordinator of the MSDND, Chief Ayibatekena Olodin , while addressing newsmen at the abandoned site of the Amnesty Training centre in Kaima town commended the numerous gains of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) under the leadership of its Interim Administrator, Col. Miland Dixon Dikio (rtd.) but called on Federal Government to strengthen its partnership with the interim administrator in order to achieve more goals of Amnesty Programme.
Olodin noted that the abandoned Presidential Amnesty Vocational Training Centre has left many beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme untrained in various Vocational skills needed to empower them in the society.
MSDND recalled that the vandalization and looting of the N60billion Amnesty Training and Vocational Centre located at Boro–Town, Kaiama in Bayelsa State occurred in a shady manner; hence they have filed a petitions before the State Commissioner of Police and the EFCC for a detailed probe to bring those responsible to book, “despite it’s protest against the five (5) days uninterrupted looting incident that rocked the vocational centre in February 2019, the Federal Government is yet to launch a thorough investigation into the incident, which has deliberately made a mockery of the anti-corruption stance of President Muhammadu Buhari”.
In it’s petition to the State Police Command and the EFCC, the group called for a probe into the fake supply contracts, public funds stealing, fraud and corruption that occurred at the Amnesty office under the past administration of Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo who allegedly awarded over N30billion in false supply contracts to his front companies and arranged for the five days of uninterrupted looting of the N60billion vocational training facility to enable them claim that the billions of naira in supplied items, were looted by criminals.
“This is violent robbery, there are Army, Navy, and other military barracks nearby including the Bayelsa State Police Command, but these individuals from Prof. Dokubo to the Chief Security Officer (CSO) kept it a secret as planned for five (5) days 11th – 15th February 2019 until everything was looted in the state-of-the-art N60billion training complex.”
“In the petition, we demand that the properties of these individuals and companies be sealed-off and confiscated pending the outcome of the investigations. Prof. Dokubo and his cronies allegedly orchestrated the criminal and violent looting of the N60Billion training complex in Boro-Town, Kaiama, Bayelsa state to cover up their fake non-existent supply contracts in excess of N30Billion to enable them claim that the billions of naira in supplied items, were looted by criminals”.
Olodin noted that the abandoned Presidential Amnesty Vocational Training Centre has left many beneficiaries of the Amnesty Programme untrained in various Vocational skills needed to empower them in the society, recalling that the vandalization and looting of the N60billion Amnesty Training and Vocational Centre located at Boro–Town, Kaiama in Bayelsa State occurred in a shady manner; hence they have filed a petitions before the State Commissioner of Police and the EFCC for a detailed probe to bring those responsible to book.
Chief Olodin called on the EFCC and the Bayelsa state Police Command to investigate and prosecute these perpetrators. Chief Olodi further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to provide for the re-construction of the Amnesty training facility in Boro-Town with adequate security measures in place for the training of youths in specialized skills across the country.
