Politics

Akpabio denies abandoning task of constituting NDDC board

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The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, said on Friday that he did not leave the responsibility for the constitution of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) board for someone else.

Akpabio, who made the denial in a statement, noted that reports that he left the constitution of the NDDC board was a mere fabrication of sponsored writers in the media.

The statement reads: “My attention has been drawn to sponsored write ups in the media, claiming that I passed the buck on my responsibility for the constitution of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

“The write ups, deliberately published while I was outside the country on national duty, reportedly quoted my media aide, Jackson Udom, claiming that I have denied responsibility for the constitution of the board of the commission. I have checked with Mr Udom and he has clearly said he was misquoted.

While I am not shocked by the mischief inherent in the publication, I am alarmed at the extent of falsehood the writers went in pushing their anti-Niger Delta agenda to scuttle the due consideration of the report of the Forensic Audit by stampeding the government. More alarming is the attempt to drag the hallowed name of our president into this plot.

“For the avoidance of doubt, President Muhammadu Buhari has set out to reposition the NDDC after 19 years of rot, saw to the undermining of the dreams of the fathers of the region, to fast track its development through the setting up of an interventionist agency.

Part of the strategy was a forensic audit to understand what went wrong, despite the resources committed to the commission over the years.

“The report of that audit has just been submitted to the President, who is studying it to come up with a formula for a commission fit for purpose. That formula is what the board being put together will work with.

“It is not in the interest of the region to stampede the government into aborting the reform process. The President has demonstrated immense love for the Niger Delta and its people. This is reflected in the support he has given to the NDDC to complete some of the projects abandoned over the years, like the headquarters complex in Port Harcourt, the Students’ Hostel at Uyo and the electrification project in Ondo State.

“The President wants to give to the region an interventionist agency that will realize the dreams of our fathers for our people and generations yet unborn. The greatest disservice we can do to the region is to attempt to stampede him, through ingeniously crafted media campaigns.

“I am irrevocably committed to assisting the president to leave behind a legacy for the Niger Delta people, particularly, saving the NDDC from dying like past developmental agencies put together for the region since 1958.”

Politics

Make NDDC audit report public, punish all offenders, Dan Orbih tells Buhari

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Nothing must be done to sweep the forensic audit report on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the carpet.

This charge was made Sunday by Chief Dan Orbih, National Vice Chairman (South-South) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while addressing journalists in Abuja on the widely reported submission of the forensic audit report commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The PDP chieftain also tasked the President not to spare anyone indicted by the report, insisting that identified culprits be made to pay for their acts of corruption, and not pardoned because of any known relationship or ties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, had last Thursday submitted the Forensic Audit Report on NDDC to President Muhammadu Buhari through the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

Speaking on the issue Sunday, Orbih welcomed the report, noting that it was a confirmation of his earlier held fears that the NDDC was, and still is, a cesspool of corruption from where misguided politicians were milking the people of the South-South dry instead of developing the region.

The outcome of the forensic audit report confirms my worst fears. NDDC is the centre of corruption in Nigeria. President Buhari must not allow this report to gather dust or be swept under the carpet. It may have its flaws because of the processes leading up to it but it remains too important to toy with.
“The Niger Delta has been robbed for too long and our people demand transparency in the implementation of the findings of the forensic exercise. I call on Mr President to make the audit report public without delay,” Orbih said.

While expressing concerns over the manner in which the Buhari administration has handled issues of corruption by public officials, Chief Orbih tasked the President to bring all indicted individuals to book and have them pay for sabotaging the people of the Niger Delta.

He said: “President Buhari must prove this time that he is not selective in dispensing justice to all those involved in the criminal act of sabotaging the economy. We demand that all individuals indicted by the report must be made to face the law. Being a member of APC should not be a ticket to freedom in the matter of recklessly stealing from our people. The President must be firm and just.”

Orbih also demanded apology from the Nigerian government for its indiscretion in appointing into the Board of NDDC a set of unaccomplished individuals, alleging that they were largely responsible for the later woes of the interventionist agency.

“The APC government must apologize to the people of the South-South for imposing an incompetent Board on NDDC. Their indiscretion is largely responsible for our woes today,” Orbih alleged.

The forensic audit report had reportedly shown that there were over 13,000 abandoned projects in the Niger Delta, and that multinational oil companies had failed to remit over $4billion to the commission.

Politics

Akpabio submits NDDC audit report revealing13,000 abandoned projects in Niger Delta

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The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, on Thursday, submitted the Forensic Audit Report on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) while noting that 13,000 projects were abandoned in the Region.

Akpabio submitted the report to President Muhammadu Buhari through the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, in Abuja.

“The report of the audit committee showed that there are over 13,000 abandoned projects in the Niger Delta and even before the submission of the report some contractors have returned to site on their own and completed about 77 road projects.

Although the exercise had a checkered history, I thank Mr President and all those who supported and ensured its success”.

He stressed that the exercise was not done to witch-hunt anyone, but to ensure that the huge sums of funds committed to the area yearly are justified.

He lamented that the region had remained backward since 1958 in spite of successive governments’ efforts through the creation of various interventionist programmes and projects.

The Lead Forensic Auditor, Alhaji Kabir Ahmed, in a brief overview of the report, said that the team recommended managerial as well as structural changes, chief of which is the downsizing of the NDDC’s board.

He said to reduce cost the team recommended that members of the team should henceforth be appointed on a part-time basis.

Politics

Akpabio receives NDDC forensic audit report

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Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, has revealed that the Federal Government will study the Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) final forensic report in order to ensure the action of President Muhammadu Buhari over crucial areas.

Akpabio disclosed this in Abuja when he received the forensic audit report from the security team on Tuesday.

The Minister expressed satisfaction on the job done, maintaining that the report would be a turning point for the NDDC and development of the Niger Delta region.

This would pave the way for fresh nominations for a substantive board of the NDDC to the National Assembly, which had generated a lot of controversy,” Akpabio noted.

“It would also facilitate the process of constituting the board, boost development of the Niger Delta region and reposition the commission to ensure optimal performance, as against what obtained in the past.”

He restated Buhari’s directive for a holistic examination and review of NDDC’s operations, for the economic prosperity of the Niger Delta region.

Politics

South-South govs, Akpabio disagree over lack of NDDC board

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Governors of the six states in the South-South geopolitical zone are in disagreement with the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, on the inauguration of a substantive board for the Niger Delta Development Commission.

The South-South Governors Forum had after their meeting in Government House, Port Harcourt on Monday night, frowned on the ongoing management structure of the interventionist agency, saying it was shortchanging the region and lacked due process.

The governors advised President Muhammadu Buhari that in the absence of a substantive board for the commission, funds for the NDDC beyond the payment of salaries should be put in an escrow account.

Meanwhile, Akpabio in a media parley in Port Harcourt, on Tuesday, ahead of the formal inauguration of the new headquarters of the NDDC scheduled this Thursday in the city, said most of the governors in the zone were running their local government areas with caretaker committees, rather than conducting elections.

Specifically, he said the governors lacked the moral standing to issue such directive to the President on issues of the NDDC.

In a statement released by the Special Assistant on Media to the Rivers State Governor, Kelvin Ebiri, Chairman of the South-South Governors Forum and Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, had read the position of the governors at the end of the forum’s meeting, saying it had become a thing of concern that the NDDC, over a year, was run by an Interim Caretaker Committee, and now, by an interim administrator.

He said, “It means that the NDDC is run in such a manner that it is actually not truly beneficial to our people, because there is no stakeholders’ input in the running of the affairs of the NDDC.”

However, Akpabio insisted that the Federal Government had never denied the states of funds despite the governors running their local governments like caretaker committees.
He further said it was abnormal for governors, who belonged to an opposition party to give directives to the President in a ruling party, which he said has performed beyond expectations.

Politics

Oils communities identify cause of NDDC ‘failure’, beg Buhari not to scrap commission

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The Host Communities Producing Oil and Gas in Nigeria (HOSCON) has pleaded with the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government not to yield to calls asking him to scrap the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The umbrella body of the oil and gas producing communities described the calls as “irresponsible, an insult and gross disregard and disrespect of the untiring efforts” of some people in the Niger Delta working to ensure a better deal for oil communities.

HOSCON made the appeal in a statement issued by its National Leader, Professor Jasper Jumbo, on Thursday.

He said the reason NDDC had so far failed to live up to its expectations was primarily because those who did not understand the vision for which the commission was set, have continued to serve as its managers and directors.

On how to ensure the vision for setting up the intervention agency is realised, Jumbo suggested that “patriotic Nigerians who are genuinely committed to the Niger Delta struggle” got appointed into the board and management of the NDDC.

There have been several calls over the last few months for the scrapping of the NDDC due to alleged massive corruption cases coming out of the interventionist agency.

Many have argued that the commission has been turned into a cash cow by some group of people, to the detriment of the region and the people.

Ripples Nigeria had at various instances carried out investigative reports that had exposed how the commission had abandoned, or even failed to carry out projects for which huge sums had been disbursed.

Recently, acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Prof Kemebradikumo Pondei had fainted at a public hearing by the House of Representatives probing allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud at the commission.

The probe had since been abandoned after that incident.

Politics

Has The Microphone Been Turned Off On National Assembly’s N81bn Probe Of NDDC? By Fredrick Nwabufo

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So, it is a convenient tactic to hold the dirt of the interim management of the NDDC supervising the audit in the air for an eventual entente. What was happening was just crossfire of blackmail and intimidation. It is the threat of mutually assured destruction before the ‘’meeting at the table of kindreds’’.

Probe. This is another word for political manoeuvring, horse-trading, chicanery and blackmail – in the Nigerian milieu. Probes are launched here not for righteous ends but for some predetermined recidivist motives. In particular, the so-called ‘’corruption probes’’ are themselves felonious panels set up to exact vengeance, broker deals or cause distraction from national discontent. Beelzebub cannot cast out demons.

I recall the Ndudi Elumelu corruption probe of the power sector in 2009 where as chairman of the house committee on power, ‘’the prober’’ was accused of receiving bribes and allegedly annexing N5.2bn from the rural electrification budget alongside other officials on the panel. I would like to ask, what came out of this all-important and well-noised probe? Nothing!

I also recall the senate’s probe of sale of government assets by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) under Nasir el-Rufai in 2004. El-Rufai had alleged the previous year (2003) that some senators demanded a N54m bribe to confirm his appointment as minister. So, the angry senate unleashed itself in a tit-for-tat subsumed as ‘’corruption probe’’.

And not too long ago, Nigerians witnessed perhaps the grandest of all fiasco probes – the fuel subsidy probe involving Farouk Lawan, Mr Integrity, in 2012. Lawan, who was the chairman of the house committee investigating fuel subsidies, allegedly demanded a $3m bribe from Femi Otedola to exculpate his company, Zenon, of blame in the fuel subsidy fraud.

The probe came on the heels of the unrest occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy by the Jonathan administration in January 2012. The fuel subsidy regime was natively corrupt. Some oil companies held the government by the noggins and were paid regardless of whether they supplied petrol or not. Lawan, Mr Integrity, was recorded on video allegedly receiving a bribe of $500,000 from Otedola – a part payment of the filthy lucre.

In July 2020, Nigerians were entertained by a riveting but gallows-humorous spectacle from the national assembly panels probing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over alleged stealing of N81.5bn. The interim management of the commission admitted to have spent N1.32bn on themselves as ‘’COVID-19 palliative’’.

The commission also owned up to spending N81.5bn in just eight months. What is most discomfiting, really, is how this humongous sum was spent.

A breakdown of the profligacy by the house of representatives panel ‘’probing’’ the agency showed that the commission spent, ‘’N1.3bn on community relations; condolences, N122.9m; consultancy, N83m; COVID-19, N3.14bn; duty travel allowance (DTA), N486m, imprest, N790.9m, and Lassa fever, N1.956bn’’.

Other items on the lavish list are, ‘’legal services, N900m; maintenance, N220m; overseas travel, N85.6m; public communications, N1.121bn; security, N744m; staffing-related payment, N8.8bn; stakeholders engagement, N248m’’.

A big whale feast. That is what the NDDC has become.  In July, I wrote that the theatrics and pyrotechnics during the probe sessions at the senate and the house of representatives were nothing more than entertainment skits. It has been four months since the probes, but no one has been held to account for the gross plunder of funds assigned for the Niger Delta people. In fact, owing to the revelations from the probe sessions, Concerned Nigerians, a civil society group led by Deji Adeyanju, filed a petition against certain officials allegedly complicit in the graft bazaar at the NDDC to the EFCC, but none has been invited for questioning, let alone being prosecuted.

Kemebradikumo Pondei, acting managing director of the NDDC, ‘’fainted’’ during an interrogation by the house panel; Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, accused Peter Nwaoboshi, a member of the senate panel probing the NDDC, of  being a major beneficiary of the sleaze in the agency. The senator riposted, accusing Akpabio of appropriating a N300m NDDC fencing contract for himself. Joy Nunieh, former MD of the NDDC, unlatched the grimy closet accusing the minister of corruption, abuse of office and sexual harassment.

The distraction continued at the house where the chairman of the committee probing the NDDC was accused of being a shareholding partaker of the iniquity in the commission. Allegations and recriminations – by both the prober and the probed. Unclean hands seeking justice against bloodied hands. Again, Beelzebub cannot cast out demons.

I had said the probes were essentially about deal-brokering. The audit of the operations of the NDDC from 2001 and 2019 will bring to the fore a lot of interred skeletons involving those at the national assembly and those at the composite quarters of national corruption.

So, it is a convenient tactic to hold the dirt of the interim management of the NDDC supervising the audit in the air for an eventual entente. What was happening was just crossfire of blackmail and intimidation. It is the threat of mutually assured destruction before the ‘’meeting at the table of kindreds’’. The NDDC probes have gone the way of other probes.

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