Youth Leader Okays Move To Probe NDDC

The leader of a youth group, known as the Aggrieved Niger Delta Youths (ANDY), Prince Amatari Bipelede, has supported moves by the House of Representatives to probe the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
This followed moves by the House to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to probe the commission on utilisation of funds allocated to it from 2010 to date.
The Committee is to ascertain all outstanding sums due the agency and the utilisation of the funds.
In a telephone interview with our correspondent, Bipedede said the move is necessary as long as it is genuine.
He expressed the view that before now, so many reports had been made against the NDDC, over which the National Assembly has so far not taken any action.
“If this present National Assembly wants to probe the NDDC, it is a welcome development if only it is not a media probe”, he said.
According to him, his group is not happy over the silence of the presidency and the NASS as the probe of the agency is overdue.
“As far as we are concerned, NDDC is stinking”, he said.
On the possible benefits that could accrue from such probe to the Niger Delta region, the youth leader said, “if the NASS will swing into action to probe the Commission intoto, it will go a long way to sanitise first the NDDC”.
He added that due to the development, financial institutions are wary of supporting the agency to enable them carry out their mandate of developing the region.
“These funds that are given to the Commission do not reflect on the development of the region”, he said.