By Emma Amaize
THE Niger Delta Peoples Forum, NDPF, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari, not to sit by and let the charade orchestrated by Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, at the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to continue.
In a drawn-out statement, today, National Chairman, NDPF, Chief Boma Ebiakpo, noted: “Under the ruse of an audit, Chief Akpabio has commandeered the NDDC as his personal estate, which he executes as he wishes.”
“For one and a half years (Since October 2019) he has caused the NDDC to be run by a succession of interim managements while putting on hold the Governing Board nominated by Mr. President and confirmed by the Senate in line with the NDDC Act. In the last 18 months (since October 2019), the NDDC has had three illegal Interim Management imposed on it contrary to the provisions of the NDDC Act.
“The first was headed by Joi Nunieh, the second by Prof Daniel Pondei (Akpabio’s former classmate at Federal Government College Port-Harcourt), and the third is the current Interim Sole Administrator in the person of Effiong Okon Akwa ,who was previously Akpabio’s staff while he was governor of Akwa Ibom state.
“When he illegally brought in the first Interim Management Committee in October 2019, the minister said it was to supervise a forensic audit of the NDDC and will last for six months only after which the governing board will be inaugurated as required by the law – the NDDC Act. He said the audit would end in six months.
“But by February of 2020, he sacked the acting managing director of that IMC in the person of Ms Joi Nunieh and appointed Prof Daniel Pondei (his former classmate at Federal Government College Port Harcourt) in her place with a fresh promise that the audit would be completed by December 2020, an extension of nine months.
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“As that promised date approached he sacked the Interim Management Committee headed by Pondei and appointed his former personal aide, Effiong Okon Akwa, as Interim Sole Administrator with a renewed promise that the audit would be completed by the end of March 2021 and the Governing Board put in place on the first of April.
“Now that the promised date has drawn close, Akpabio is now saying that the audit will end ‘in a few months after which the Board will be put in place. This duplicitous tendency has chronicled the manner in which the NDDC under Akpabio is run.
“In this period from October 2019 to date, Akpabio has caused the NDDC to be run by illegal interim managements in breach of the law and has squandered over N400 billion of its money which rightly belongs to all people of the Niger Delta from the nine constituent states in fictitious contracts.
“The minister made his new statement about ending the audit and bringing in the governing board ‘in a few months in response to the demands of governors of the oil-producing Niger Delta states, who met in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Tuesday, March 9th and demanded that the Governing Board should be put in place immediately in line with the NDDC Act or the financial allocations to the NDDC (aside from salary payments) should be kept in an escrow account pending the putting in place of the Board.
“The governors’ strongly worded statement followed months of complaints, petitions and anger from the elders and people of the nine constituent states of the NDDC on the continued bleeding of the NDDC by Akpabio in flagrant disregard of the law, which specifically provides for representation of states and interest groups in the management of the NDDC.
“It also followed reports detailed in the National Assembly probe of the Interim Management Committee and other revelations by whistle blowers that several billions of naira have been squandered by the Akpabio Interim Managements with nothing to show on ground. At the last count, over N400 billion has been frittered away by Akpabio and his interim management committees over the last 18 months with no visible projects apart from N10 billion expended on the Headquarters building which was already 70 per cent completed!
“Rather than listen to the demands of the Niger Delta people, Akpabio insults them and makes light of the request to follow the law in running the NDDC. For instance, reacting to the governors’ call for the board to be put in place, he defended the current illegality by saying that since some state governors refuse to hold local government elections he is justified in not allowing the board to be put in place! This is most ludicrous and makes a ridicule of the Buhari administration.
“Through guile and scheming, Akpabio has ‘weaponized’ the so-called forensic audit to justify the illegality and fraud he is superintending at the NDDC. In his flawed logic, an external audit cannot be carried out in an agency except the legally-provided-for board (whose members were never part of the NDDC during the audit period is put on hold).
“The reality is that and a number of his interim managers have been deeply involved in the flawed management of the NDDC over the years which should ordinarily disqualify them from supervising the forensic audit of the operations of the NDDC for those years,” the group asserted.
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