The office of the Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta and Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Prof. Charles Dokubo, has debunked allegations of N3.2 billion contract scam involving wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari.
In a statement issued yesterday by his media aide, Mr. Murphy Ganagana, the presidential adviser said the attention of his office was drawn to a media report captioned, ’Aisha Buhari, Monguno Named in Dokubo’s Fresh N3.2BN Scandal’ which accused Mrs Buhari and the National Security Adviser to the President, Babagana Monguno, of conspiring with him to steal the contract sum from the Amnesty Office.
The statement reads in part: “We urge members of the public to discountenance the report in its entirety as it is the handiwork of an angry and hungry bunch whose attempt to coerce Prof. Dokubo to award them contracts was courageously rebuffed by him. They have threatened and vowed to fight dirty to remove him from office, but their evil machinations will come to naught.
“The allegation that Prof. Dokubo has been boasting that he cannot be sacked as a result of his ties with the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the First Lady is a dangerous and wicked lie calculated at inciting and creating gullies of bad blood in the cordial relationship between Dokubo and Monguno, a highly respected, disciplined and incorruptible military officer with impeccable and enviable records in a career that spanned over three decades.
“It is true that a contract for empowerment of 300 Niger Delta youths in oil and gas instrumentation was awarded to Messrs. Glassfa Continental Limited, and another contract for training and empowerment of 400 delegates in coastal fishing was awarded to Innotek Royal Services Limited. However, the two contracts in question were beyond the threshold of the Special Adviser to the President and Co-ordinator, Amnesty Programme. Therefore, in line with statutory guidelines and regulations, a Due Process No Objection was sought and obtained from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) vides a letter OSAPND/GCL/VT/2018/11010 dated October 19, 2018. Consequently, approval for award of contracts to the two companies was granted by the BPP.
“Contrary to the allegation that payment had been made to the two companies even though work has not commenced, we wish to state with emphasis that no dime had been paid to any of the two companies.”