The South South Reawakening Group, has called for the immediate suspension of the ongoing forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), describing it as a “circus of corruption”.
Converner of the group, Joseph Ambakederimo, in a statement, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint a board for the NDDC to start a new phase for the development of the region.
According to them, it was no longer news that the forensic audit ordered by the President has now been turned into “a circus for mismanagement and misappropriation of public funds to oil the machinery of political interests of a few, while the region and its people continue to suffer the perpetual psychological torture of these buccaneers.”
The group recalled that the NDDC is still presently being run by an interim sole administrator, saying the alien appointment runs contrary to the provisions of the Act that establishing the NDDC.
“This was not the intendment of the framers of the NDDC Act. To add salt to injury the appointment of Mr Effiong Akwa as announced by Femi Adesina, the Presidential spokesman was said to be an open ended appointment, the first of ever such appointment.
“That the appointment of Effiong Akwa ends whenever the forensic audit is concluded. And this is the reason why the Minister has exploited this clause to his personal advantage by shifting the date for the end to the audit. It is quite interesting. About two trillion so far has been budgeted and approved for the commission in the past three years with nothing tangible to show till date and no one his batting an eyelid.
“But unfortunately we have a roguish team that has hold sway with many enablers right in the system some by ways of appointment serving in various capacities in an institution once criticiseed by them including those whom have sometimes in the past purported to have fought for the underdevelopment of the region even going to the extent of threatening same shut down of the region as done by Peter Igbifa if certain things were not done,” he said.
The group also slammed the President of Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Peter Igbifa, for allegedly faking own kidnap.
“It is disheartening to hear that a false alarm was put out a few days ago on the alleged kidnap of the Ijaw Youth President Peter Igbifa on his way to Abuja enroute the Port Harcourt Airport.
“No doubt the alleged kidnap was to make the Hon. Minister of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio look bad in the eyes of Nigerians arising from the threat of massive protest to shut down the Niger Delta region by the Izon Youth Congress and other ethnic groups that have signed in to join the protest as a result of the non appointment of a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission for the past three years.
“It is now made abundantly clear that many of the kidnap cases we hear are all a hoax and all in a bid to heat up the polity and blow the insecurity situation out of proportion and by extension malign President Buhari. What the IYC President and his cotravellers did is unacceptable in any sane society and they should be punished for it. We cannot allow these kind of characters to roam free in our society.
“They must be brought to face the law if it is established that he faked his kidnap to deter many whom have indulge in this kind of practice. We condemn this attitude in its strongest terms and call for his outright sack from office if found culpable.
“Yes Peter Igbifa may have done well to oppose the present situation in the NDDC like many have done across the country and still do because what we have and coming out of the NDDC is a putrid smell that is not good for any government that purports to be fighting corruption. The NDDC today has become an institution where corruption walks with four legs,” the statement reads.
It also added that, “now while the news of his suspension as the President of IYC is a welcome development is because of his betrayal of trust and the disrepute he has inadvertently brought to the Izon nation. Going further we will make bold to say those who have suspended him are also as guilty as Peter Igbifa.
“We the South South Reawakening Group will continue to oppose the bandits that have held the NDDC hostage. As we watch with keen interest the developments in the commission a conpendium of recycled emergency projects and monies siphoned through backdated projects is been compiled and would be presented to the media in due course of time”.
