As CSOs call for independent panel to investigate corruption in NDDC
Oil producing under the umbrella of the Host Communities of Nigeria Producing Oil and Gas (HOSCON) has made a case for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to be domiciled in the presidency for proper supervision, rather than leaving it under the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
Spokesman for the association, Mr. Monday Whiskey said in a statement that HOSCON had earlier raised the alarm in November 2019 that allowing the ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to oversee NDDC would be to the detriment of the region.
The association also called for the immediate inauguration of a substantive NDDC board to oversee the commission’s administration and clean up the current mess in the agency.
Whiskey said the decision was arrived at after a meeting of the national leadership, including state chairmen, youth and women wings and selected leaders from the 10 oil-producing states of Delta, Edo, Ondo, Lagos, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Abia and Imo.
The group resolved that everyone who has been fingered in the sleaze in the interventionist agency must be prosecuted.
“We hereby resolve as follows: That we demand without further delay, the return of the NDDC to the presidency for proper administration and supervision.
“That we demand without further delay the immediate sacking and prosecution of all the actors who perpetrated these heinous crimes against the people of the oil-producing communities.”
HOSCON noted that it was becoming uncomfortable with the mind-boggling amounts being allegedly stolen in the agency and called for a presidential intervention.
“We are no longer comfortable with the multi-billion-naira fraud allegations that have bedeviled the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the kangaroo three-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) leading to wastage of over N80 billion.
“We demand without further delay that the already screened and confirmed board by the National Assembly under the chairmanship of Dr. Pius Odubu be urgently inaugurated to put a stop to this wanton wastage and outright stealing that is ongoing currently at the commission.
“HOSCON, as the most formidable grassroots pressure group in the Niger Delta that has laboured so much to ensure sustainable peace in the region rich in oil and gas, will not sit aloof and allow some self-aggrandising political appointees that are selfishly motivated to set the region on fire,” it said.
Similarly, 10 civil society organisations urged President Muhammadu Buhari to raise an independent panel to investigate the alleged financial impropriety in the NDDC.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the groups, under the aegis of Civil Society Joint Action Against Corruption, called for the stoppage of the ongoing national assembly probe, saying the presidential investigation became necessary as it had become difficult to identify the real culprits.
Leaders of the organisations, who signed the statement, said they were more concerned about accusations linking the national assembly and, particularly, the chairman, House Committee on NDDC, Mr. Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, to the corruption in the commission.
The groups and their leaders include Musa Abdullahi, Advocacy for Good Governance; Tunde Olakunle Adebisi, Nigeria First Initiative, Hellen Ochie; Score Card Nigeria, Okechukwu Orji; Zero Tolerance and Anti- Corruption Network; and Samuel Dickson of Network Against Poverty in Africa Campaign.
They noted the loss of confidence expressed by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC and the people of the Niger Delta in the National Assembly ad-hoc committee to guarantee impartial probe and said the constant exchange of accusations and counter-accusations between the Senate and House of Representatives committees on Niger Delta and the IMC had made an independent probe crucial.
“We are of the opinion that the standing committees of the National Assembly, being interested parties in the case, and having been accused of corruption, will not do justice to the issues of financial improprieties and other related wrongdoings in the NDDC. The CSOs consequently demanded the committees discontinue and excuse themselves from the probe,” they said.
