The fiscal management of the DAA-3 Cluster Development Board, which oversees critical community development funds for 14 oil-rich host communities in the Kalabari Kingdom, has come under intense public scrutiny.
Prominent Port Harcourt-based media personality and activist, Harry Confidence, has issued a blistering demand for accountability, alleging that the board has failed to deliver a single visible project despite being in office for over five years.
The DAA-3 Cluster Development Board was established to manage the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) funds provided by oil majors operating in the Cawthorne Channel axis of Rivers State.
These funds are intended for scholarships, healthcare facilities, and infrastructural development for satellite communities including Ido, Abalama, and others within the Asari-Toru Local Government Area.
However, Confidence noted that since the current board’s inception in 2021, there has been a “deafening silence” regarding the disbursement of these multi-million Naira allocations. “We are tired of meetings that yield no brick and mortar,” Confidence stated during her morning broadcast. “The people of the 14 communities deserve to know where the development money has gone over the last sixty months.”
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The controversy isn’t new, as the DAA-3 Board has previously been at the center of disputes regarding the Pipeline Surveillance Contract awarded to Tantita Security Services, where they rejected the allocation of only 250 slots out of 1,500 to their host communities.
While the board was vocal about surveillance “chances” in 2022, Confidence argues that they have been conspicuously quiet about the actual community development projects they were mandated to execute. The media personality’s demand is backed by a growing segment of Kalabari youth who are calling for a forensic audit of the board’s financial records to determine if the GMoU funds have been diverted or mismanaged.
The lack of transparency in Cluster Development Boards has been attributed to be a contributing factor for communal unrest and the vandalization of oil assets. By bringing this issue to the “court of public opinion,” Harry Confidence is tapping into a wider regional frustration with local-level corruption in the Niger Delta.
The DAA-3 Board, which includes representatives from the host communities and government regulators, has yet to issue an official response to the “5-year zero result” challenge. However, sources close to the board suggest that “bureaucratic delays” and “security challenges” in the creeks have slowed down project implementation.
