Ex-NDDC Director Alleges Looting …As SAN Urges NDDC Act Review

Consequent upon the dissolution of the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a call has gone to the Federal Government to cause the relevant graft agencies in the country to investigate those involved in the alleged looting of the treasury of the commission.

The commissioner, representing Bayesla State in the  dissolved NDDC board, Mr Anthony Orubo made the call, while speaking with newsmen at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, at the weekend.

Mr Orubo who was affected by the recent dissolution of the NDDC board by President Goodluck Jonathan said he was satisfied with the decision of the President.

According to him, we were there for two years and projects were not commissioned. Some of us who were even on the board were beginning to wonder what was going on.

He said the Niger Delta is bigger than all the members of the board put together and therefore, must move forward.

He urged the Federal Government to squarely address the problems in NDDC by ensuring that those who were involved in the alleged looting of the treasury of the commission were not left to go unpunished.

“It will not be right that some people have gone there and have looted money and you dissolve the board for another set of people to do same”, he said.

Mr Orubo stressed that money was looted from the treasury of the NDDC given the fact that budgetary allocations were made available to the commission in the past two years and nothing on ground to show for such funds.

“Of course, money has been looted, when you look at how much money (budgetary) had been allocated to us , nothing on the ground to show for it “, he added.

Meanwhile, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Sebastine Hon, has recommended the amendment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act to bring it under the presidency as a panacea to the recurring problem in the commission.

Hon told The Tide in an interview in Port Harcourt last week that the Act should be amended in a way that management of the NDDC  is brought directly under the presidency such that its board reports directly to the president.

“The idea is that since the development of the Niger Delta has  become a national imperative, the president who is the chief citizens and who bears the highest burden of ensuring the success of this national imperative, will also be held responsible if the NDDC fails again to carry out its statutory responsibilities,” he explained.

The legal luminary who was reacting to the dissolution of the NDDC board urged the President not to place mediocrity and political patronage above merit in his appointment of a new board for the commission, and added that he should strictly abide by the procedure laid down in the Act for appointment of the management team.

He recalled that it was political and managerial inertia that collapsed OMPADEC, the forerunner of NDDC, and that as an indigene of the Niger Delta whom God has elevated, history will not be kind to him if he places mediocrity and political patronage above merit.

Reward Akwu & Peace Vivian Nwievenen