CHAIRMAN of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, PACA, Prof Itse Sagay, SAN, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack every member of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Interim Management Committee, IMC.
Sagay gave the advice while featuring on a current affairs programme on Channels Television.
Sagay, an indigene of Delta State, one of the states of the Niger Delta, lamented what he described as mind boggling the level of pilfering of NDDC resources meant for the development of the region.
He said: “What President Buhari has to do is to clear all of them out of the place, all the people involved and sweep the place clean. When some of these appointments were going to be made, I spoke in my private capacity that one or two of them were not suitable and fit for the responsibilities they were about to be given, but they were still given and now we are seeing the results.
“The whole place is in a total mess, accusations and counter accusations talking of billions, it is mind boggling, very frightening and what worries me is that the rest of the country will say we had sympathy for your condition, made provisions but your own people have gone there and destroyed everything. It gives a very bad name to the Niger Delta.
“So, I will suggest that everybody there should be cleared out and the President should appoint a new set of people very quickly under temporary condition, so that a permanent board and management can be established in the place who will then be monitored.”
On the need to inaugurate a substantive board for the commission, he said: “I do not see why the auditing cannot take place when you have a regular board. I do not see the point of having this temporal board, which is an abnormally and a disaster.”
This came as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday, rated the performance of NDDC low, since its establishment 20 years.
He gave the House’ assessment of the commission, at an Investigative hearing into the alleged administrative malfeasance and financial impropriety at the NDDC.
He said, “The Federal Government created the NDDC as an interventionist agency, to bridge critical development gaps in a region where years of underinvestment in infrastructure and the damage from fossil fuel exploration, has had a severely deleterious effect on the lives, livelihoods and wellbeing of the people.
“It was intended that the commission will begin the long-overdue process of making good on our nation’s obligations to the people of the Niger Delta, from whose lands and waters we have for decades drawn our nation’s sustenance.
“In the over two decades since that promise has not been kept. Despite its critical importance and the vast sums of money that have been appropriated by the Federal Government, the Niger Delta continues to score exceptionally low on many of the major human development indices. These statistics reflect the reality of disease and deprivation, lack of opportunity and broken dreams that is the plight of many of our fellow citizens in the region. It is therefore, particularly disturbing and quite frankly, embarrassing that every other news report about the NDDC seems to centre around escalating allegations of corruption and malfeasance,” he said.
He said the committee will get to the bottom of the allegations of financial impropriety, no matter whose ox is gored.
“Our purpose today, and over the cause of this investigative hearing, is to ask why this failure persists and to do so with a determination to understand the causes of that failure so that we can act to redeem the NDDC and remove those factors that imperil the commission’s noble mission. We will examine the allegations of corruption and malfeasance that have dogged the commission.
“We will do so with neither fear nor favour, confident in the assurance that we have both a constitutional duty and moral obligation to ensure that the enormous sums of money appropriated for the NDDC over the years are appropriately accounted for by those whose responsibility it has been to manage this important and all too essential public trust,” he said.
He observed that the success of the assignment will depend on the cooperation of officials of the commission, as he warned the committee to avoid pitfalls that will tarnish the reputation of the House.
Earlier in his welcome address at the hearing, Chairman of the Committee, Tunji-Ojo, recalled that the House of Representatives on May 5, 2020, deliberated on a motion on the need to investigate the alleged financial malfeasance and other activities in the NDDC and consequently, referred same to the Committee to investigate.”
Ex-militants, agitators, CSOs plan mass protest against corruption
Meanwhile, Coalition of Niger Delta Agitators, CNDA, some civil society groups, ex-militant groups, and voluntary organisations have resolved to lead a mass protest against corruption in the nine states of NDDC.
The nine states include Abia, Imo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta and Cross River.
The planned protest which is yet to be fixed follows revelations of seemingly unjustified expenditures by IMC, of the NDDC at the ongoing probe at the National Assembly.
In a statement by leader of Niger Delta Watchdogs/Convener of Coalition for Niger Delta Agitators and 12 others, John Dukku, the ex-militants expressed shock that NDDC could pay itself such amount of money within four months.
The coalition said assuming the expenditures were correct, the manner in which they were made amounted to the illegal sharing of commonwealth of Niger Deltans.
Calling the attention of the Presidency to the issues, the group pushed for immediate dissolution of the IMC and the prosecution of suspects to restore the hope of the Niger Deltans in the government.
