Chinedu Eze
The Foundation for Peace and Non-violence in Nigeria has condemned the spate of mudslinging in the media on the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), Professor Charles Dokubo.
President of the group, Onengiye Erekosima, who made the observation while speaking to journalists yesterday at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) in Lagos on his way to Abuja, stated that the Ijaw nation was being embarrassed by attempts to soil the reputation of the special adviser by some Ijaw people, either jostling for his position in the presidency or having an interest to protect.
Erekosima also said Dokubo is a decent man, who does not deserve such mudslinging, and that nemesis would catch up with the perpetrators.
He decried what seemed of recent to be the character of some Ijaw people to pull their brothers down in order to replace them in their jobs or just for self centredness, pointing out that the dog-eats-dog mentality was embarrassing to the Ijaw nation before other Nigerians.
The leader of the group, therefore, urged the perpetrators of the act to desist from such ‘queer and borrowed culture’ for which the Ijaw people were not known for in the past.
Erekosima said: “It was unthinkable for anyone to imagine or moot the allegations let alone falsely accusing him in the media of such heinous offence as looting a training complex, knowing well his forthright status and impeccable character in Ijaw land in particular and Nigeria in general.”
He noted that Dokubo has achieved so much and cited the case of prompt and regular payment of stipends to ex-agitators, who no longer block the highways in the region to protest the anomaly, as a big credit.
Erekosima stated that a cursory interaction with the Special Adviser would leave no one in doubt of his intellectual capacity, dexterity and diligence to deliver, and appealed to members of the public to discountenance the campaign of calumny by some misguided Ijaw persons.
He further stated that the presidential adviser is an honest man that means well for the people of Niger Delta, and cautioned that history would not forgive anyone working to truncate such hope.
Erekosima therefore urged such people to wait patiently for their own time, if God so destined them for it, and allow the present man in charge unfold all he had for the region.
