Group Tasks New NDDC Board On Unresolved Dirty Linen

The new board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC has been put to task over cleaning what has been described as the dirty linen left behind by the immediate past administrations of the commission.

The Community Development Committees of Oil and Gas Producing Areas of the Niger Delta in a communique released in the wake of the inauguration of the new board said it welcomed the enthusiasm brought by the members of the new board. It, however, said that there were many outstanding issues which could not be swept away.

The communiqué issued by the CDC’s chairman of the board of trustees, Comrade Joseph Joseph Ambakederimo on the dirty linen left behind by the past NDDC managements read thus:

1. The talk of rebranding of the NDDC by the new board is a welcome development but this must be followed with all seriousness and commitment.

2. Rebranding of the commission without beaming the search light on the period of post forensic audit would be a ruse and will cast some doubt on this new team.

The period from April 2019 to October 2022, when Effiong Akwa held sway must be made to account for humongous amount of resources that may not have been duly utilised.

3. This development was alluded to by the Honourable Minister of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs Chief Umana Okon Umana when he visited the Headquarters of the NDDC. He said over Three Hundred Billion Naira had been spent and unaccounted for by Effiong Akwa and that such monies must be recovered. (these were his words.)

4. We applauded him and felt some relief that something positive would come out of the NDDC whenever the new board would be appointed. But to our amazement the Minister did not make mention of this very important point we believe will rekindle hope of our people. All those who spoke at the inauguration and also at the handing over ceremony didn’t mention the issue of the Three Hundred Billion expenditure spent with nothing to show for it.

5. Have we all suddenly glossed over this waste and moved on? For us this is a red flag already. The Laureta Onochie led board must deliberately look backwards and begin the process of bringing all those who were responsible for the past misdeeds to book for the board to earn the trust of the people.

6. Anything short of this  is certainly will not be acceptable because it is now a matter of speculations that malfeasances during the Sole Administrator regime were indeed worse that the period covered by the forensic audit. Therefore, the first genuine step to rebranding the NDDC should be the unambiguous effort to punish wrong doing, without such a step the waters will still look muddy like in the past before the eyes of the people.

7. We had earlier submitted a Freedom of Information, FOI request on the finances of the NDDC and we wish to aver that the request is still subsisting and would not mind exerting it to back our petition to the relevant anti-corruption agencies. It is within our legal right and the spirit of the FoI act that empowers us to approach the court of law to file for a mandamus to be served on the Ministry and NDDC if they both failed to answer to our request.

We are also appealing to government to allow this board run its full tenure of four years so that we can have some basis to appraise  their performance at the end of their tenure and further recommend them for reappointment if necessary.

8. We thank the President for this appointment and also appreciate the Honourable Minister who has matched capability with capacity  and doggedness to achieve and shown a clear action plan for the region.

12. We use this opportunity to congratulate and welcome this August team. We have no doubt that this team will excel in all ramifications only if they avoid the proverbial banana-peels.

We want to assure the team of the unalloyed support of the Community Development Committees of Oil and Gas Producing Areas of the Niger Delta.

Joseph Ambakederimo,

Chairman Board of Trustees.

Community Development Committees of Oil and Gas Producing Areas of the Niger Delta.

GWG.ng reports that the new board of the NDDC had resumed with a vow to address the dirty linen left behind by the past administrations of the commission.

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