Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, at the weekend, appraised the performance of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) under the leadership of Prof. Charles Dokubo, and expressed conviction of a deep rooted commitment to the development of the Niger Delta.
Akeredolu, who spoke in Abuja when he visited Dokubo, said the PAP coordinator has within a short period in the saddle, demonstrated a clear commitment to the objectives of the programme.
“It is not the first time I have met him. Prof. Dokubo is someone from Niger Delta and he is committed to this programme (Amnesty); that, he has shown today. He has a personal commitment to everything that has to do with Niger Delta because he is one of them. So, I see that in him, and he has shown it,” he said.
The governor, however, urged the Federal Government to continuously assess and review participation in the amnesty to provide a window of opportunity for more youths in the Niger Delta to be included in the interventionist programme. He said expansion of the scope of the programme to accommodate more persons will take away a lot of unrest in the region.
Akeredolu said he visited Dokubo to solicit inclusion into the PAP, some youths in Ondo State who had been disarmed and granted amnesty by the government.
“We are here to discuss matters that have to do with amnesty as they affect our people in Ondo State. The meeting went well and we are going to work on our decisions.”
Dokubo explained that inclusion of more persons into the programme is an exclusive preserve of President Muhammadu Buhari. He said unless there is a presidential proclamation to accommodate more persons into the programme alongside a budgetary expansion, he lacked the powers to take such decision.
He, however, expressed the willingness of the amnesty to train Niger Delta youths who are not beneficiaries of the programme at the world-class training facilities, which he completed and activated, if state governments in the region were ready to pay monthly stipends of their delegates.
“But, if we have to involve non-beneficiaries of the programme in our trainings without payment of stipends, I will not be happy or willing to do so because that will be discriminatory. I can assist you with the training, but that means, they will have to receive stipends from Ondo State government,” he said.