By Sampson Boroh
Bayelsa State elders on Friday threw their weight behind the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari for a thorough audit of the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from 2001 to 2019.
They described the move as timely and it will put a stop to the acts of impunity among politicians and officials from the Niger Delta region who see the interventionist agency as a means to enrich themselves at the detriment of the region.
President Buhari had ordered for a forensic audit of the NDDC from 2001 to 2019 when governors from the region led by the governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriake Dickson visited him in Abuja on Thursday.
Mr President during the meeting expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the agency, saying that the commission’s performance can justify the huge amount of monies that the federal government had pumped into the region for its development.
While reacting to the order, the Bayelsa elders under the aegis of Association of Rural Chief for Peace and Development (ARCPD) hailed the president’s directive, saying that the move will help the people of the region to be accountable.
ALSO READ: Anxiety In N/Delta As Buhari Orders Audit Of NDDC From 2001 To 2019
The group led by Alabo Nengi James-Oriworio and the former Security Adviser to the Bayelsa State Government, Chief Perekeme Kpodoh, noted that they wholeheartedly agreed with Mr President’s action on NDDC.
The elders stated that the forensic audit should also be extended to other intervention agencies including the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
According to them, the audit ordered of the NDDC will justify the calls by the people of the Niger Delta region for a closer look at the spending of the commission which had been turned into a conduit pipe for governors and political appointees in the region.
On his part, Chief Prekeme Kpodoh said, “it will not be business as usual. Most of them including some traditional rulers take the Commission as a conduit pipe to syphon monies meant for development. Politicians support members of the commission board and use them to divert funds for development into private pockets.”
Kpodoh, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), urged Mr President to ask the probe panel to take a closer look at the alleged disappearance of N60billion under the guise of quick win jobs and water hyacinth contracts to youths of the region.
YOU MAY ALSO READ: Success’ Viral Video: Delta Completes Okotie-Eboh Primary School Building In Sapele (PHOTOS)
“The N60billion water hyacinth jobs don’t have records. Water hyacinth jobs are used to “kill and divide” within the NDDC.It is part of the purported emergency jobs used by top officials of the NDDC to move funds out of the commission for their political bosses.
“They have deviated from the NDDC blue prints. The probe ordered should not be for the NDDC alone,it should be extended to the Presidential Amnesty office. If the diverted monies were judicious used for what they were meant for, the region would have been like Holland.”
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has also expressed support for the forensic audit of the commission would help reveal the rot and shame that the organization represents in recent years.
In a statement issued by its Secretary-General, Mr. Alfred Kemepado, noted that the NDDC and the Amnesty programme, “have been more of a problem to the youths and people of the Niger Delta rather than the solution it was set up to be, calling on President Buhari to make out sufficient time to further audit the committee that is set up to audit the NDDC so as to ensure they are not influenced by the NDDC actors as so much money is available to them in billions of Naira to do so.
“The IYC scribe also called on The President to forensically audit the Presidential Amnesty Program to ensure the productivity of that program for the people of the Niger Delta. Furthermore on the NDDC, The IYC scribe Mr. Alfred Kemepado requested that the President should also look into the over politicization of the commission. That the commission seems to have lost its vision and mission to the funding of politics instead of the development of the region.”
“That a focused NDDC is capable of bringing massive development and total rest to the issues of the Niger Delta, especially the security issues. Instead the NDDC is known for issuing bogus contracts and the corrupt over invoicing of such contracts to enrich their cronies who are most times not people from the Niger Delta region.”
He urged President Buhari not to fail to expose culprits no matter how highly placed or which political party they belong.
