By Emeke Alexander
Four days after the submission of the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, where about six trillion naira was said to have been mismanaged and the non-completion of over 13,000 projects, the National Coordinator of Center for Peace and Environmental Justice, CEPEJ, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to wield the big stick on those found culpable in defrauding the government and the Niger Delta people in order to revalidate his anti-graft campaign.
The Federal Government on Thursday, September 2, 2021, said it approved about N6trillion for the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, in 18 years.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, who disclosed this while receiving the final report of the forensic audit of the Commission from the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, lamented that bulk of the funds to the NDDC for the development of the Niger Delta region were diverted into private pockets, noting that the executions of 13,777 projects were substantially compromised.
Mr Malami said the final report of the forensic audit of the NDDC, amongst others, is to ensure probity and accountability in the use of public funds.
In view of the startling revelations in the audit report, some Nigerians particularly those from the region have been outraged over the mismanagement of funds to the Commission.
Comrade Mulade while speaking with NewsNet Nigeria on the forensic audit report urged President Buhari to keep to his vow to launch criminal investigation on the 13,777 compromised projects as part of efforts to right the wrongs done to the Commission since its establishment.
The environmental activist said, “Let me join my voice to those genuine Nigerians who have called on the President to wield the big stick to smoke out the perpetrators, the culprits, who deliberately neglected those projects that are meant to better the lives of the good people of Niger Delta.
“When we say that the federal government has not done enough for us and if these 13,777 projects are genuinely and judiciously executed in the Niger Delta, will the Niger Delta remain like this.
“Those projects will make impact; those will bring the needed development we are talking about. We cannot continue to blame the federal government when our own people or those who are the contractors; I know the contractors are not only from the Niger Delta, the contractors are across Nigeria, so the President should use every available means to smoke them out. EFCC, ICPC should go after them.”
Comrade Mulade further appealed to the President to rejig the NDDC towards meeting its set goals.
According to him, “The Commission is meant to develop the people hence contractors should be screened before the award of contracts.
“Most of these contractors are politically influenced contractors and that is why we are having these problems.
“So, going forward we should have genuine contractors. Even if the person is not from the Niger Delta, because we need the projects, it is the projects we are after, we are not after the contracts.
“So, we need competent, capable and dependable contractors to execute our projects in the Niger Delta. We no longer need political contractors.”
With the final forensic audit report of the NDDC now with President Buhari, the people of the Niger Delta region are optimistic that its implementation will reposition the Commission and translate into sustainable growth and development for the oil and gas region.
