By Lateef Ibrahim
The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Amnesty to the Niger Delta militants, Prof. Charles Dokubo, has raised alarm on the activities of ‘vendors’ trying to undermine the success of the amnesty programme.
Dokubo spoke in Abuja yesterday at an interactive with newsmen.
He said the so called Amnesty Vendors do not have record of diligent contract experience, but have been mounting pressure on the Amnesty Programme administrators to set aside due process and award them contracts on Amnesty related programme.
He said the vendors do not have the resources and expertise to carry out the contracts that they lobby for, and that when such contracts were awarded them in the past, they sold them out.
“Their only credential is that they are from the Niger Delta region and not because they have capacity to perform”, the presidential aide said, adding that “It is a misnomer to have a group like Amnesty vendors.”
While insisting that contracts on amnesty can only be given on the basis of performance and credentials, and not where one comes from, Dokubo added that a situation whereby the Vendors Association used to get contracts without bidding for them must stop.
‘They are like a cabal. They are resisting the changes being introduced to transform the Amnesty programme contracts and make them competitive,’ he said.
According to him, the programme will continue to discharge its duties diligently in line with the due process regulation of the federal government, despite the resistance from people who have entrenched themselves in the system and are poised to shortchange the process.
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