PH Mundial – Port Harcourt Online Newspaper News Across The Region
Related Articles
A body of various women groups, activists, community and opinion leaders, and professionals in the Niger Delta, under the aegis of Wailing Women of Niger Delta and Burden Bearers of the Niger Delta advocating for the development of Niger Delta region, said the region and its people “have been taken for granted for too long while those they looked up to have let them down.”
Coordinator of the group, Barr Odighonin Adienbo, in “representations to President Muhammadu Buhari the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” said “the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, question is tied to the age-long struggle for the development of the Niger Delta region which cost us countless lives.
“The core mandate of the NDDC is basically to complement the infrastructure development efforts of government in the Niger Delta region. This by the Act establishing the commission is meant to be actualized through a coordinated approach with a properly constituted board in place.
“Unfortunately, the NDDC which has received trillions of Naira in budgetary allocation and other royalties have, based on available public evidence and reports, lived far below expectation because of fraud till date. This definitely is not unconnected to the fact that the NDDC was derailed by powerful forces who turned the commission to a political cash cow including currently known persons.
“Unfortunately, today the NDDC has become a shadow of itself despite all the revenues accruing to it unaccounted for up till the current system. The recent revelations at the National Assembly exposed the extreme and outrageous level of malfeasance and irregularities that have impeded the progress of the commission in the region enriching a known few within and outside power.
“The current running stalemate at the NDDC is due to the noncompliance with the Act establishing the commission and this is a grievous breach of trust. The commission has been subjected to sole administrator-ship for years now particularly at the behest of the current supervision without accountability.
“We see a clear class conspiracy to privatize the NDDC at the detriment of our people. Unfortunately our men and fathers have given up and gone to sleep while our region gropes in the dark of underdevelopment under the current watch. On this, we hold His Excellency Senator Godswill Akpabio, the supervising minister of the Niger Delta Affairs fully responsible for the grave degeneration and irregularities in the region and the NDDC,” she said.
Adienbo said their demands are that the Federal Government should within the next few days constitute the substantive board of the NDDC including the Governors Advisory Council of the commission in keeping with the relevant provisions of the NDDC Act.
“This demand is with immediate effect because it is provided for in law. We are not anarchists. There is no need for the NDDC to function with tax payer’s and oil monies to enrich a few who have connived not to account for the billions of dollars that have kept on accruing to the commission up till today.
“That the Federal Government should immediately comply with the NDDC Act by dissolving the illegal Interim Management Committee and the current sole administrator-ship structure used to run the NDDC because they are unknown to law and accountable to only one man.
“We demand the immediate publication of the Forensic Audit report by the President. It is a public document and the Federal Government owes a duty of transparency if there must be no secrecy to shield anybody indicted.
“We demand that all monies that have been accrued to the NDDC from the inception of the interim or acting managements beginning from Prof. Nelson Brambaifa till date be brought to account without any mischievous delays. This includes particularly the minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, His Excellency Senator Godswill Akpabio, who should account for all the monies accrued under his supervision of the NDDC and all those running the affairs of the commission under him till date. This is to the effect that they have not accounted for the billions of Naira allocated to the NDDC and have nothing to show for it.
“We are aware of the grand plan to sustain the current illegal interim management and sole administrator-ship structure till the end of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. This will not be acceptable because it is illegal and Mr. President is enjoined to rise to the oath of his office in the interest of peace and justice.
“Should our demands not be met within few days, as mothers and women of the region, we shall enforce our rights to do the needful including approaching the court and shutting down the NDDC through lawful means until this injustice stops.
Enough is enough. We will not take it!! The Federal Government and Senator Godswill Akpabio can no longer take the Niger Delta for a ride. We shall come out naked and insist on our right as the burden bearers of the region. It shall no longer be business as usual. They should get ready to kill all of us.
“For the records, there is no excuse why we cannot have a duly constituted board if not that they intend to undermine the core mandates of the NDDC. We have lost every economic, social and infrastructure development opportunities that can only be implemented by a board of the NDDC and the region is worse hit. We are asking for a board and the Governors Advisory Council among others. In doing so, we want women to be duly integrated in the process and they must be people who are in touch with our people in the communities.
“In furtherance to our advocacy, we have officially written letters to the Federal Government through the relevant offices driving home the demands herein established. The Federal Government must not set up the Niger Delta for a looming implosion because a major crisis is imminent and it must be avoided as a result of the lack of NDDC board which Senator Godswill Akpabio and his allies are prosecuting against the region.
“We the women are the most impacted by the injustice in the region. The infrastructure deficit is huge and incalculable. While we demand for the immediate constitution of the board, we the women of the Niger Delta region therefore insist on the recovery of stolen monies through conduit contracts to show that the government is serious.”
