NDDC: N’Delta militants back Akpabio, forensic audit, slam NASS
…NDDC awarded N6bn fingerlings contracts
without fish ponds — Akpabio By Emma Amaize & Chris Ochayi Minister of
Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has opened more cans of worm,
with his disclosure that the previous administration at Niger Delta Development
Commission, NDDC, awarded N6 billion contracts for fingerlings without any
designated fish ponds to deliver them. Meanwhile, a group of militants in Niger
Delta under the auspices of Joint Revolutionary Council, JRC, yesterday,
expressed its support for Akpabio, saying findings by it showed that National
Assembly was after him because he refused the lawmakers from continuing their
plundering of NDDC.
NDDC awarded N6bn fingerlings contracts
without fish ponds —Akpabio Akpabio, who made the disclosure in Abuja, while
playing host to a delegation of members of Petrol Station Owners Association, PESOA,
Rivers State chapter, said this explained the unprecedented rot that
characterised the previous management of the commission. He said: “If you are
from Niger Delta, you must be forced to ask certain questions. I was in this
office when a young man walked in and asked me, ‘Sir, what do I do?’ “I was
given a contract to supply fingerlings for N6 billion and I have N3 billion
still in my account. I asked by whom, he said NDDC. I said when? And he said a
few years ago but with this probe coming, I don’t know what to do. “My health
is not good and I don’t want stress. Sir, can I return N3 billion out of the N6
billion? I said didn’t you supply, he said they didn’t give him where to supply
to. “Fingerlings is something that you supply to fish ponds, am I
right? Now N6 billion worth of fingerlings for fish ponds in Niger Delta and
yet they didn’t have the fish pond but they wrote they are across 27 senatorial
districts. “I think they like giving out contracts without doing the job. I
keep telling people I am not just waking up. As a governor, I know there was
something wrong with NDDC but I couldn’t pinpoint it, I could see the symptoms.
“So when I became a Minister of Niger Delta, that’s when I found that the
symptoms of failure that I used to see were all about corruption. It was like
an ATM for people to make money to contest elections. “Whether I am here or
not, I believe we should change the story and the story can only change
when we tell the truth. But a lot of people are not ready to tell the truth.“
N’Delta militants back Akpabio, forensic audit, slam NASS Meanwhile, JRC
constituent group, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND,
supported the ongoing forensic audit of NDDC. Also, Niger Delta Enterprise
Initiative, NDEI, said a forensic audit of NDDC should continue as
planned to determine how the N15 trillion allocated to the commission in the
last 19 years was spent without result. JRC’s spokesperson, Cynthia
Whyte, in a statement, said: “On the revelations at NDDC, we all know that if
the Minister and the Interim Management Committee had agreed to a deal with the
National Assembly, like has been the case in the past two decades, we would not
have heard the things we have been treated to in the past few months. “Nothing
will change at NDDC if the attitude of the National Assembly towards NDDC is
not re-worked, re-calibrated and re-jigged. “If it will take an Akpabio to
change that, then fine. Akpabio understands infrastructure development. Apart
from King Alfred Diete Spiff, no other governor in the Niger Delta has met or
matched the measure of Infrastructural development that Akpabio brought to Akwa
Ibom State. “That is without question. We will like to see that kind of
infrastructure deployed across Niger Delta. In the years to come, he will be
called to give an account of his stewardship at the Ministry of Niger Delta and
NDDC.” On its part, President of NDEI, George Kerley, in a statement, said: “In
19 years, NDDC has received about N15 trillion in allocation, yet there is
almost nothing to show for it. No first-class quality roads or bridges or
schools or related infrastructure.‘‘