Amnesty Programme: Dokubo reveals plan to train more ex-agitators

Saturday, June 16, 2018 9:07 pm

Prof Dokubo (right) at a meeting with some leaders of the ex-agitators in Abuja recently

Prof. Charles Dokubo, the Coordinator, Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), says the office has concluded plans to resuscitate vocational centres in Ondo, Kayama and Boro town to facilitate training of ex-agitators.

Dokubo disclosed this while speaking at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.

“I just took over office about three months ago and then there are a lot of vocational centres that were lying ideal when I took over the office.

“So what I’m trying to do is to resuscitate these vocational training centres in Ondo, Kayama Boro Town and all that.

“So they are now working on these; building hostels for delegates that we are going to send to that place so that they could learn the arts, welding, electricity, electric wiring and all these things.

“I believe that in the next three weeks I’m going to launch that place open; so that people could also see that amnesty is not just in the writing; it is acting and also imparting on the communities that are supposed to be addressed.

Dokubo also said that the programme still had at least 11,000 ex-agitators, awaiting training.

“The fact is that we still have 11,000 (ex-agitators); we have now set them on as delegates, (and) there are others who have finished. We are trying to see how we could send them to these centres that I have mentioned so that they could be trained.

“I think sometimes their training becomes obsolete and so we are trying to see how we could send them to these centres so that they could be trained because of the merging new technologies and all that.

“We are retraining them also so that they could be updated on the things that they are supposed to be doing because training if not used for a long time, could become obsolete.”

Dokubo said that the amnesty programme was committed to delivering a viable plan for the benefit of the affected communities.

“We have given them education, we have given water and other agencies have provided roads among others.

“But for us the most important thing is the training; the educational aspect of it, not only academic but also vocational training that they go through.’’

According to him, since its establishment, the programme has continued to achieve its set objectives especially in the areas of training and security.

He said: “The programme is not only about empowerment; it’s also about security. We are coming from impacted community with post conflict situations and how do we address it.

“It is not easy to go back into a post conflict situation and try to deal with the issue, because it deals with the rebuilding of the infrastructure and providing services that were destroyed during the crisis.