- Want Buhari To Disband NDDC’s IMC Immediately
- Inaugurate NDDC Board Cleared By Senate
Stakeholders in the Niger Delta region, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and other concerned groups in the country have been steamed up by the lengedary looting and financial recklessness that have brought the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to its knee, turning it into an augean stable of some sorts.
To clean up the mess that has riddled the Commission, the stakeholders comprised of traditional rulers, eggheads and elderstastemen in the region who spoke to journalists said without mincing words that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio should either step down or be suspended by the President to allow for an unhindered and uninterrupted probe of the Commission by the National Assembly, as well as, the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Read also: NDDC Probe: Over N600M Allegedly Paid By Akpabio, IMC For Media Cover-up, Coalition Reveals
The New Diplomat reports that it has been a week full of drama, turns and twists as flurries of accusations and counter-accusations dominate public space over the ongoing National Assembly’s probe of the NDDC.
The Assembly is probing N40bn scam at the Commission and also another N81.5bn, the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC claimed it spent in less than six months between January and May this year, while the Covid-19 lockdown lasted in the country.
Niger Delta leader and Founder/Lead Executive Director, Global Forum for Accountability and Transparency Nigeria, Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo said: “With the scandalous revelations coming out of the NASS probe of NDDC, it becomes deeply troubling the way and manner the NDDC expends monies without recourse to prioritization of projects that will impact on the people of the region.
“This is the appropriate time for the President to act swiftly on the NDDC as he did with the NSITF, EFCC and others. The NDDC cannot be treated in isolation when so many financial infractions are been committed on a daily basis. Even when we express our disgust and revulsion on the attitude of the President on issues currently unfolding at the NDDC, we will continue to impress it on the President to do the needful and take the necessary action to stop the hemorrhaging at the NDDC,” he said.
Read also: Alleged N40bn Illicit Spending: Reps Summon Akpabio, NDDC’s IMC
Ambakederimo said the disclosures by the NDDC at the senate hearing such as claims of giving monies to the Nigeria Police up to the tune of N475 million to buy sanitizers and face mask, and N31.4billion expenditure for Covid-19 pandemic palliatives to selected staff of the commission when their salaries subsist, the issue of attending graduation ceremony in the United Kingdom in the months when the entire world is on lockdown and payment of scholarship grant into personal accounts of top officials of the commission have further bolstered the allegations of corruption against the IMC.
“Akpabio failed definitively with his handling of affairs in the NDDC. The NDDC is in the midst of one of the worst governing failures in its history. The intervention has become terrible and his lawlessness cannot be left unnoticed for too long. He has brought too many embarrassments to the President, therefore, Akpabio should quit,” he said.
Read also: Buhari Orders Agencies, NASS To Expedite NDDC’s Probe
National Chairman, Pan Niger-Delta Forum, (PANDEF), Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (retd.) asked the National Assembly to shun the daily drama being thrown up by the probe and instead focus on how to expedite action on its investigations.
“PANDEF had said before now that whoever was a contractor within that time frame should be made public so that we know those that have done well and those who have not done well for Niger Delta. So our concern is for them to finish whatever investigation they are doing in time because within the one and half years now, nothing has come into the Niger Delta from the NDDC.”
“We are not interested in the drama they are doing at the National Assembly. It is childish, that is why I do not want to make any comment on that. All those things as far as we are concerned are a distraction. We just want the National Assembly to do its own investigation without fear or favour. That is my take on that,” Idongesit, a former Military Administrator of Akwa Ibom said.
Reacting to the allegations of fraud against the NDDC IMC headed by Prof. Kemebradikumo pondei, a royal father, His Majesty, Michael Omeru, Ogurime-Rime, Ukori 1, Ovie of Agbon Kingdom in Delta State said the President should relieve the IMC of their duties and inaugurate the NDDC board that has since been screened and cleared by the Senate.
“President Muhammadu Buhari should inaugurate the NDDC Board cleared by the National Assembly with Chief Bernard Okumagba as Managing Director now. President Buhari may have realized that the contrived Interim Management Committee, IMC, was sold to him with adverse purpose going by the absurd revelations coming from the committee members themselves at the NASS probe.
“Chief Okumagba, a technocrat and financial management expert, could not have involved a board under him in what the country is witnessing now. I would like to appeal to the President to take a close look at suggestions and submissions from his appointees to avoid the numerous flaws in his government. Most appointees put their personal interest first and foremost,” the monarch said.
Expressing his displeasure on the failure of the NDDC to deliver on its mandates since inception, Constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Dr. Akpo Mudiaga-Odje, said: “Indeed, I agree and in concord with the Senate hearing on the raped and deprived NDDC. In July 2000, the courageous Senator Chuba Okadigbo and Hon Ghali Nabba overrode the assent of Olusegun Obasanjo as President, under Section 58 (3 & 4) of the Constitution. Since then, this NDDC has become a labyrinth of corruption and endemic sleaze.”
“The statements and counter statements from the hearing are scandalous and beyond shame.
“As to my take on this, I agree with Prof Itse Sagay SAN, that the way forward should be to immediately swear in the substantive board approved by the Senate on November 5, 2019.
“Once this is done, the Federal Government should monitor their spending and regulate the award of contracts in the commission. Mr. President should do the needful now. In the meantime, we call on the federal government to immediately pay all arrears of the shortfall of the payment of 10 percent instead of 15 percent as directed by Section 14 to the Commission.
“And oil and gas IOCs should immediately pay up all arrears of payment of 1 percent instead of 2 percent as directed by the NDDC Act 2000. We cannot be doing forensic audit without complying with the law,” he said.
The PDP in a statement by its spokesman, Mr. Kola Ologboniyan had on Friday said the forensic audit ordered by Buhari would be a waste of time and scarce resources if the NDDC IMC and Akpabio continue to supervise the exercise.
The party called on President Buhari to immediately disband the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC as officials have been accused of engaging in unbridled looting of funds meant for the development of the area.
“The PDP says with the unearthing of rampant corruption, treasury looting, recklessness and manifest public unruliness of the NDDC management, the Minister and the IMC have become a huge embarrassment not only to the Buhari administration but also to the Niger Delta region and the nation at large.
“The party insists that though President Buhari has ordered a ‘speedy and coordinated investigation’ of the activities of the NDDC management, such an important probe cannot yield any credible result as long as Senator Akpabio and indicted IMC are still in charge in the commission,” the party said.
Meanwhile, following the revelation by the former Managing Director of the NDDC-IMC, Dr. Joi Nunieh, while testifying before the House of Representatives Committee on the Niger Delta on Friday, the lawmakers had summoned Akpabio and Pondei who currently oversees the NDDC to appear before it on Monday.
The probe has been accompanied with many controversies as police invaded Nunieh’s residence on Thursday. It took the effort of Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike to rescue her from the police’s planned arrest.
Nunieh is currently seeking refuge at the Rivers state Government House in Port Harcourt amid call by the Rivers police Command, asking Wike to hand her over to them for investigation in a development that is prepping up a showdown between the police and the Rivers state government.
