Deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Yekeen Nabena, has accused the Rivers State governor of witch hunt over the seal off of the Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) corporate headquarters in the state’s capital, Port Harcourt.
The Rivers State Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday, sealed off the corporate headquarters of NDDC in Port Harcourt the alleged failure the commission to pay withholding tax of about running N50bn.
Chairman of RIRS, Adoage Norteh, said the NDDC premises were sealed off because the commission refused to make their (NDDC) financial records available for audit.
Charles Odili, NDDC Director of Corporate Affairs, has since dismissed the claim of Rivers State Internal Revenue Service as incorrect.
But while reacting to the development, Nabena alleged that Governor Wike was using the state revenue agency to witch hunt the NDDC management.
He further declared that Governor Wike’s action, using the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service was a plot to harass the NDDC in a bid to frustrate Commission’s development activities for the region.
Nabena further claimed that the action of the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service did not follow due process.
According to him: “It is disheartening that the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike has chosen to sabotage the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission all in his bid to score political points against the President Muhammadu Buhari government.
“Wike should know by now that an attack on NDDC’s operations is an attack on the South-south and other oil producing states which the commission was established develop.”
The APC chieftain who incidentally is from Bayelsa state further appealed to elders in the South-south states to wade into the face-off between Governor Wike and the NDDC.
“In the meantime, I call on stakeholders in the Niger Delta region to call Governor Nyesom Wike to order since he has decided to take his known executive rascality to new heights. Clearly, the sealing of NDDC’s office by the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service did not follow due process and is politically motivated to sabotage the President Muhammadu Buhari developmental agenda for the South-south and other oil-producing states.
“The interest of the Niger Delta is bigger than any individual, in this case, Wike. If this issue is unresolved and persists, the federal government must consider relocating the NDDC office to neighbouring Edo state to allow for the commission’s ease of operations.”
