NDDC: Investigate previous administrations, publicise indicted individuals — Ex-agitators

Ex-agitators have urged the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to publicise the identities of those charged in the commission’s forensic audit report.

Inquiries into previous governments were also required.

Nature Kieghe Dumale stated that making the identities of such individuals public will serve as a caution to those trying to do business with the commission following an urgent gathering of ex-agitators in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, over the weekend.

Dumale praised the Niger Delta Affairs Minister Umana Okon Umana’s leadership style and complimented the board, whose members include Dr. Sam Ogbuku, the Managing Director, and Lauretta Onochie, the Chairperson.

Dumale urged the new board to win over the public by mentioning the politicians, contractors, and businesses that the report had accused of improperly managing their relationships with the commission.

Dumale, the chairman of the PAP’s Strategic Communication Committee (SCC), pleaded with the board to launch an investigation into how the commission’s previous interim administrators used roughly N300 billion that accrued to the NDDC during his leadership.

He said that disclosing the identities of individuals named in the forensic audit report and looking into the N300 billion spending would win the public’s trust and demonstrate that things would no longer be done as usual.

Dumale said: “As much as we are happy that after a long time we now have a credible board on ground to pilot the affairs of the NDDC, it is important to also say that we cannot waste money and time investigating the activities of the commission without publishing the result of such expensive exercise.

“People want to see the report. They want to see people punished for their negative role in under-developing the region by collecting money for contracts they never executed.

“The minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Umanah Okon Umanah had alleged that N300billion was frittered away by the past leadership of the NDDC. This allegation and the sum involved are too weighty to be ignored.

“We call on the Lauretta Onochie-led board to set up a panel to look into what such money was used for. This is the only way this board can curry support from the people”.