News Release: "The Suspension Of Professor Charles Dokubo Is Not Enough"--Niger Delta Militant Group

Dokubo

We received with absolute disgust the news on the Suspension of Professor Charles Quaker Dokubo as Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

We believe that this is a phony attempt at window dressing the core issues and a poor attempt at surface dressing the many problems facing the Presidential Amnesty Programme today.

It is impossible to have that scale of fraud, embezzlement, mismanagement and general malfeasance at the Presidential Amnesty Programme without active and coordinated connivance with the Office of the National Security Adviser.

The fact that two coordinators of the Presidential Amnesty Programme have been sacked for fraud within a space of two years (March 2018 and March 2020), shows that something is fundamental wrong with the current architecture and supervisory framework of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

Whatever investigation must be carried out on the Presidential Amnesty Programme must be done directly by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not through the Office of the National Security Adviser who is also an Adviser to the President just as the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme doubles as Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, which is a Cabinet ranking position.

We maintain, as we have continued to do in recent times that the Presidential Amnesty Programme should be removed from the supervision of the Office of the National Security Adviser and domiciled directly under the Presidency.

As Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and a cabinet ranking member of the Government, we believe that the Coordinator should report directly to the President even if it be through the Chief of Staff to the President.

Nothing will change with the Amnesty Programme if this matter is not urgently addressed.

Enough is Enough.

Cynthia Whyte

Joint Spokesperson, 

Joint Revolutionary Council

March 7, 2020