By Ovie Okpare
A former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, has debunked allegation by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, that he received multi-million naira contracts from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Ibori told the former Akwa Ibom State governor that he is not interested to be joined in the “dancing in the market square” going on in the NDDC.
Akpabio, who is trying to defend multi billion naira financial recklessness by the Interim Management Committee of the interventionist agency, accused the former governor of receiving contracts running into millions from the commission.
But Ibori in a statement signed by his Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, denied the allegation, saying he had never collected contracts from the commission.
Ibori, who was governor of Delta between 1999 to 2007, said he had never been a government contractor, and not even after leaving office.
The statement said, “Chief James Onanefe Ibori, on hearing the news of the alleged Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) contract award to him this morning, from the former Governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as published by Punch newspapers and other online publications, he did not want to join in the “dancing in the market square” going on in the NDDC right now.
“He has decided to make this clarification for the records because friends and associates inundated him with phone calls this morning. So, he is stating categorically that he never solicited for, or was awarded, or indeed executed, any contract with NDDC or any government agency, at any time, for that matter.
“And in all he has been through in and out of public office, he has never been accused of being a government contractor, let alone a failed one hence he did not want to dignify the allegation with a response because it is ridiculous.
“So, Ibori is advising Akpabio, his brother, friend and member of the former Governors Forum, to please calm down and focus on the task at hand.”
The former governor noted that NDDC came into being through the personal sacrifice of then governors and Niger Delta stakeholders, lamenting that what is happening to the commission was far from the reasons for the establishment of the agency.
“Ibori said that the NDDC we have today is a product of his personal sacrifice as well as those of his Niger Delta colleagues (1999 -2007) who rose to the occasion to override the veto of President Olusegun Obasanjo who refused to assent to the NDDC Bill at the time.
“If not for the exemplary courage some of us exhibited, there would have not been an NDDC to bicker about today.
“Watching the level the NDDC has degenerated to, is a tragedy. We owe it a duty to the people of the Niger Delta to make NDDC work to ameliorate the sufferings of the people of the region and to realise the dream for which we fought for it to be set up. So, let everybody involved in the NDDC do their duties to the good people of the region.”
