Gang up against Forensic Audit of NDDC will not work, Akpabio finally hits anti-Niger Delta development forces attacking Buhari’s clean up programme

*Joi Nunieh is the face of corruption fighting back at me – Minister

By Kemi Kasumu

The NDDC has over the years been enmeshed in a cesspool of corruption and failure to deliver on its core mandate to the people of the Niger Delta region. Consequently, whereas the order by President Muhammadu Buhari to probe NDDC activities in the last 20 years has attracted commendation from key stakeholders in the region, those who are uncomfortable with the reforms are fighting back with everything.

The Honourable Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has declared that the gang-up against the ongoing Forensic Audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by some politicians would not work.

Senator Akpabio, who is the supervising Minister of the interventionist agency for the development of the Niger Delta region, made the declaration while speaking in Abuja Friday shortly after he appeared at the public hearing of the Senate AdHoc Committee investigating alleged financial recklessness at the NDDC.

He decried the unrelenting attacks on the implementation of the presidential directive by powerful forces within the Niger Delta region and beyond.

Akpabio however said that no amount of blackmail, name calling and cooked up allegations would deter the Ministry under his watch from going ahead with the clean up in the Commission to end the 20 years of waste since inception.

This was contained in a statement issued by Barrister Sogbeye Eli, S.A.Technical to Head of Women, Youth, Sports & Culture, NDDC Headquarters, in Port Harcourt, on Sunday copy of which was obtained by The DEFENDER.

The Senate AdHoc Committee headed by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi had summoned the Honourable Minister and the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC as well as other stakeholders to the public hearing investigating an alleged fraud to the tune of N40 billion at the Commission, although the ongoing Forensic Audit, ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, whose constitutional responsibility it is to stop age-long economic parasites militating against achieving desired goal for the Niger Delta region, is broader than just a N40 billion alleged fraud.

President Buhari is alarmed that over N300 billion pumped into NDDC to make the region a Dubai out of Nigeria had yielded no g9od results and is insistent on probing the managements of the agency from establishment to day but this Senate is looking at the IMC that has is there only about eight months and without budget.

It would be recalled that Joi Nunieh, the sacked immediate past Acting Managing Director of the NDDC before the reconstitution of the Commission’s Interim Management Committee, had after shunning the invitation of the Senate AdHoc Committee on the two days it sat launched media attacks on the person of the Honourable Minister with unsubstantiated allegations which woefully failed to address the basis of the investigation.

With the position of the Senate expected after the AdHoc Committee presents reports of the investigation, the Honourable Minister called on stakeholders in the region to eschew bitterness and join hands with the interim leadership of the NDDC on the mission to reposition her for focused delivery of the goals of infrastructure and human capital development of the Niger Delta.

Akpabio emphasized that the Forensic Audit of the NDDC was on course in spite of the distractions and remains the best foot forward to repositioning the Commission for a fresh start when a full Board takes over her management at the end of this year.

The House of Representatives AdHoc Committee would this week also consider the submissions by critical stakeholders in the Niger Delta on the allegations hovering around the Commission at her own version of public hearings.

On Joi Nunieh

In the meantime, the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, has said that the events of the last few days at the National Assembly were a clear indication that corruption is fighting back at him.

Akpabio, who immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State and immediate past Senate Minority Leader in Nigeria, also corroborated this when he spoke in reaction to allegations levelled against him by a former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joi Nunieh. He said he was being vilified for his determination to end the sleaze in the system.

“My decision to reduce the illegal cash flow at the NDDC to corrupt individuals through the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari is the reason for these attacks”, said Akpabio.

The Minister noted that the NDDC had bled for too long in the hands of politicians who reduced it to their cash cow, adding that those who are incensed with him and the Interim Management Committee are fighting back to stop further blocking of the leakages in the system.

The NDDC has over the years been enmeshed in a cesspool of corruption and failure to deliver on its core mandate to the people of the Niger Delta region. Consequently, whereas the order by President Muhammadu Buhari to probe NDDC activities in the last 20 years has attracted commendation from key stakeholders in the region, those who are uncomfortable with the reforms are fighting back with everything to destroy or discredit the Minister and the leadership of the Interim Management Committee led by Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei.

Akpabio observed that in the last couple of months, he and the NDDC IMC have come under a barrage of attacks in a fierce fightback by politicians wounded by the forensic audit. These attacks which manifest in sponsorship of petitions to the National Assembly and media blackmail by politicians who are evidently hurt by the efforts to sanitise the Commission has continued unabated and constitute a huge distraction to the work of the Minister and the NDDC management as directed by the President.

He however assured that he would not be deterred in his resolve to lead the desired change at the Commission to justify the confidence of President Buhari as well as the support and goodwill of patriotic citizens of the Niger Delta region, noting that “forensic, forensic and forensic alone is the way forward to give the NDDC back to the people for which the agency was created”.

He concluded on an optimistic note by assuring that with the successful conclusion of the forensic audit of the NDDC, the Commission would in future be free from the profligacy of the past and the Niger Delta itself would no longer be a museum of abandoned projects.