27th August, 2020
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Col. Milland Dixion Dikio (rtd) as Interim Administrator of Niger Delta Amnesty Programme.
The appointment took effect from 21 August and comes six months after he suspended the incumbent Prof. Charles Quarker Dokubo over corruption allegations.
According to an announcement today by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, Buhari has now sacked Dokubo from Office as the Coordinator, Amnesty Programme with immediate effect.
He has has been directed to hand over all official matters to the most senior officer of the Programme.
President Buhari appreciated the services of Prof. Dokubo to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and wished him the best in his future endeavours.
Dikio will be the third person to be appointed in five years to run the amnesty programme, meant to provide succour to disarmed Niger Delta militants.
The first person appointed by Buhari in 2015, to oversee the programme, started by the Yar’Adua administration in 2008 was Brigadier General Tarelah Paul Boroh.
But in 2018, he was removed over corruption allegations. In 2019, he was arraigned in a Federal High Court for stealing Amnesty money.
Boroh, along with an accomplice, was slammed with on a nine count charge of theft and criminal breach of trust to the tune of N974,768,466 and $1,914,000.
The defendants, charged before Justice O. O. Goodluck of the FCT High Court, were said to have on different occasions, dishonestly converted the sums of N8,601,571; N106,288,445; N12,078,450; N382,800,000; N456,000,000; N9,000,000 and more, while being public officers.
His successor Dokubo was equally mired in corruption, such that the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno recommended his suspension to Buhari.
Buhari suspended him in February.
Now, another man has been appointed as an interim ‘administrator’.