N/Delta group seeks probe of monies accrued to NDDC in 4 years

By Sylvester Idowu, Warri

Community Development Committees of Niger Delta Oil and Gas Producing Areas have activated the Freedom of Information Act Seeking revenue profile of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) between 2017 and 2022 when the Interim Sole Administrator, Mr. Effiong Akwa was relieved of his post.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CDCNDOGPA, Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo, in a statement issued in Warri yesterday, said the group’s counsel, A.P. Oyibo and Co. had submitted a letter to the Acting Managing Director of NDDC and copies of which were made to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under the Freedom of Information Act requesting probe for financial records of the Commission in the past six years.

He stated that the group’s action was in response to the recent visit by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs to the Commission where he called for the erstwhile Interim Sole Administrator Mr. Effiong Akwa to account for over N300 billion wasted by the NDDC.

Mr. Ambakederimo also said the call for the FoI request was to further highlight the importance of holding people who are saddled with critical responsibilities to account for actions taken while in office.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CDCNDOGPA noted that the era of gloom and doom in the NDDC is now a thing of the past and gone for good paving for a new dawn in the Commission and expressed the hope that the people, whom the NDDC was established to cater for, would be happy and elated to see a new intervention agency that works for them.

“It is in the spirit of the above that the Community Development Committees of Niger Delta Oil and Gas Producing Areas, seek to partner with the NDDC being the true representatives of the people in the oil and gas bearing communities. Because we represent the communities, it is our profound belief that we must continually hold the managers of the resources of the NDDC to account at all times.

“Going further on issues of transparency and accountability on the part of the managers of the oil and gas resources for the development of the communities, the defence of our people in the oil and gas communities in the Niger Delta region, therefore we have to seek the cooperation of the new management of the NDDC and also from the Honourable Minister of Niger Delta Affairs to avail us our request to enable us to have an informed expenditure profile of the commission as it relates to the period under review which is April 2019 to October 20, 2022. This is the period the mismanagement of the resources of the commission surpassed the period covered by the forensic audit.

” We have to come by the way of the Freedom of information to request full disclosure of the management and application of humongous resources more than one trillion that have had no positive impact on our communities in the region,” he said.

Mr. Ambakederimo said the FoI request was coming at a time new management is taking charge and has the task of remaking and presenting a new NDDC to the people of the region noting that this can only happen if the resources are religiously and judiciously applied to relieve the people of years of pain and agony.

He declared “The then interim Sole Administrator Effiong Akwa, has no doubt managed the resources of the NDDC without full disclosure and in a nontransparent manner that was questionable in all its ramifications.

“The people of the region, therefore demand the full disclosure of the aforementioned prayers which are to be responded to by the new management of the commission within the constitutional seven days time limit from the date of receipt of the request. Failure to comply with our request shall automatically trigger a lawsuit seeking a mandamus from a competent court of jurisdiction.

“We are stating in very clear terms that if the NDDC fails to respond to our request the CDC would be acting within the law to proceed with our next further action. The FOI request was despatched on the first of November, 2022 and it is expected to have been received by the NDDC, the Ministry, and the EFCC was duly copied on the second of November, 2022, going by the delivery schedule.

“Therefore the CDC is expected to receive the request from the NDDC either before or on Friday the eleventh of November, 2022. The prompt feedback from the NDDC on this FoI request will in no small measure present the present leadership as willing to engage and do things differently away from the past,” he added.

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of CDCNDOGPA insisted that about a trillion naira claimed to have been expended by the last Interim Sole Administrator from April 2019 to October 2022, when Mr. Effiong Akwa was sacked must be probed and anyone found to be culpable in the squandering of such a humongous sum of money must not go unpunished.

“There must be consequences for wrongdoing in this country, the people cannot continue to throw up their hands in the air in despair while the looters go home with their loot intact with no consequences. There must be a price for wrongdoing as we shall pursue this matter to its logical conclusion. This is the only way we can earn the trust of our people,” he said.