Presidency vows to prosecute amnesty programme fraudsters, cautions public

The Presidential Amnesty Office has alerted the public on the activities of impostors of the Federal Government amnesty programme, vowing that they would be prosecuted. One of the impostors identified as Mr. Franklin have allegedly been soliciting between N50,000 and N100,000 for “documentation” of prospective trainees. A statement sent to The Guardian yesterday in Abuja by Murphy Ganagana, Special Assistant (Media) to the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, disclosed that some Niger Delta youths, including beneficiaries of the programme, might have fallen prey to the fraudsters.

Ganagana said some individuals had been parading as vendors engaged by the Amnesty office and sending text messages inviting unsuspecting beneficiaries of the programme to a fake training in Owerri, Imo State, on August 19, 2018.“The Amnesty office wishes to state that neither its Vocational Training Unit nor the Post Training Engagement Unit has scheduled training or refresher programme for Owerri, Imo State, on August 19, 2018, or any other date,” he said.

It advised beneficiaries of the programme to disregard the SMS in circulation inviting them for training at Owerri, as it is the machination of fraudsters.According to the special assistant, placement on training is a prerequisite for empowerment, and beneficiaries of the programme do not pay for enlistment or documentation for a training programme.

He maintained that “the Amnesty office has official channels of communication through which beneficiaries are notified” of dates and venues for training programmes.In a similar development, the Amnesty office has alerted members of the public on the existence of a fake Facebook account purportedly operated by the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator, Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo.

The Facebook account, which bears ‘Hon. Charles Dokubo’ and has ‘Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs’ as the address, is used in luring unsuspecting members of the public into a chat, which leads to the introduction of victims to the purchase of a ‘Contractor’s Registration Form’ with N250,000 for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) contracts.

The Amnesty office distanced itself from the account, saying “Prof. Dokubo does not have and has not operated a private Facebook account” since his appointment as Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta. “He has zero tolerance for corruption and does not request or receive money for award of contracts. Members of the public are hereby urged to disregard such posts on Facebook or any other social media platform, as it did not emanate from Prof. Dokubo,” it added.