Tina Amanda
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has called for active engagement between the people of the Niger Delta, EFCC and all Anti-corruption agencies to tackle corruption in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
The Assistant Commander of the Port Harcourt Zonal Office, EFCC, ACE Nwanneka Nwokike, who stated this during a Regional Conference with the theme “Beyond the Forensic Audit, Repositioning the NDDC for Inclusive and Effective Service Delivery” in Port Harcourt, organized by Social Action, said the people of the region must own up to the responsibility of the fight in repositioning NDDC.
Nwokike who was represented by the Head Public Affairs, Port Harcourt Zonal Office, EFCC, DELE OYEWOLE, maintained that there should be inclusive participation, collaboration and effective synergy between the people and Anti graft agencies, noting the commission is ready to ensure the right things are done for the benefit of people in all Niger Delta communities.
“We encourage the Niger Delta people especially those living in the rural communities to come up with information to alert and report abandoned projects to anti graft agencies for prompt intervention.
“There is need for inclusive participation, active involvement, more collaboration and effective synergy between the people and Anti-corruption agencies. There is no way we can achieve a successful corruption fight without a collective engagement with the people of the Niger Delta.”
Also,The National Organizing Secretary, Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas, Dr. Osasu Isibor, in his Book Review: on the 2019 Citizens Report on Budget and Projects of the Niger Delta Development Commission, said NDDC has abused the trust of government and the people, just as he claimed that a whooping N15 trillion worth of contract has been awarded and paid for by NDDC between the time of inception in year 2000 and 2019, but no money could be accounted for.
“The projects from the year 2000 and 2019 under review, N15 trillion has been misused. We have 13, 777 jobs awarded, paid for, started and abandoned and the others paid for but were not executed.”
He explained why it was not clear the actual number of projects that were paid for but never started.
“From the year 2000 to 2019, the abandoned projects were more like embryonic, ( just covered a lot of space but cannot actually be identified by name or location), this and the others that were started and abandoned cumulated into the 12,000 abandoned projects that were identified in the forensic audit report.
“When a term opaque is used, it simply means that nothing was on ground, nothing was there to visit or see, we have a master plan, but because there were deliberate design to take money, those processes were there on paper, but were not found.
“What this means is that the actor deliberately cloaked the process so that there is no longer evidence so that they can do a lot of manipulation, those were the racketeering they were talking about.
“Again the issue of political patronages is equally a problem that affected the ability to identify those projects that could not be identified by the forensic audit.
“From the forensic report we have, Headquarter has a budget of N1,317 billion but that Headquarter gave to itself N100, 660 billion, how else do you think they will reconcile the massive excess budget they gave to themselves?” he queried.”
On her part, Director Programmes Social Action, Vivian Bellonwu, said it is regrettable that NDDC still remains highly and operates in secrecy, noting that it is time to for the Niger Delta people to begin to look into the institution and bring down such operations.
Meanwhile, a representative from the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission ICPC, Ekere Useiri, said they are committed in ensuring that NDDC move forward just as she called for more collaboration between stakeholders and the relevant agencies.
“We in the ICPC are ready to partner with NDDC in order to achieve the mandate, we have what is called ‘my constituency my project’ , project that are abandoned, it is for the citizens to follow the money, this is our money, this is our project. It is worrisome that a lot has not been done, no sign post, nothing, yet the tax payer’s money has been paid.
“If we allow this this to continue, we will end up not getting the value of the money the government is spending. ICPC is ready to partner with NDDC in order to achieve its mandate”.
Our Correspondent reports that critical stakeholders from Niger Delta Region including representative of host communities, Oil Producing Companies and Civil Society Organizations were presents at the conference in Port Harcourt.
