Date Published: 05/05/10

NDDC crisis deepens as banks shun contract financing

THE interal top-level crisis rocking the official interventionist agency in Nigeria's main oil and gas region, appears to be taking a turn for the worse.

AkanimoReports gathered that financial institutions in the country, are currently avoiding project contracts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), as the internal bleeding within the commission worsens.

A concerned civil society organisation, South-South Elements Progressive Union (SSEPU), on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, claimed that NDDC was down.

Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo, chair of the group told AkanimoReports that all leading financial institutions in the country such as UBA, Union Bank, First Bank, Oceanic Bank, Skye Bank, and First Inland Bank which were previously funding NDDC contractors are no longer doing so.

According to Ambakederimo, ''banks have loss confidence in NDDC. As a demonstration of this, they are no lnger giving Advance Payment Guarantees (APG) to contractors handling NDDC projects''.

This latest revelation is coming on the heels of on-going clamour for Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, to sack the board of the development commission for alleged incompetence and corruption.

Thse pushing for the sack of the NDDC board are claiming that close to N50 billion has gone the drains in the past nine months due to graft. There are also worrisome allegations of contract duplicatins, lop-sidedness in the award of contracts, and ineptitude on the part of state representatives in the commission.

The commission is equally being accused of not being able to key into the post amnesty programme of the Federal Government.

Ahead of Acting President Jonathan's visit to Rivers State, the board of the commission was locked in a prolonged meeting on Wednesday in a seeming desperate bid to be on top of the agitation in the oil region for them to go.

The board meeting was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but the absent of the managing direstor stalled it.

Media handlers of the commission say the allegations being raised by those against the board are of a political nature and as such, beyond their brief for comments.

As Jonathan arrives Port Harcourt for an official visit, there were strong indications some aggrieved youths would state public protest in a bid to draw the acting president's attention to the alleged decay in the NDDC.

Already, a civil society group, Grassroots Initiative for Peace and Democracy (GIPD), has pointed out that Niger Delta youths want government to sack the board of the NDDC. ''They are prepared to use any means necessary to press home their demand'', the group said.

To this end, a number of groups in the oil region, including the GIPD are mobilising for a mass protest as the Acting President arrives Port Harcourt.

Executive Director of the GIPD, Mr. Akinaka Richard, told AkanimoReports on telephone on Wednesday: ''We want the board of NDDC dissolved because of the outright display of incompetency, gross financial mismanagement, fraudulent award of contracts against due process, and unwarranted internall rift''.

Continuing, the group claimed that the board of the development agency as presently constituted is incapable of freeing the oil region from acts of insurgency. ''To avert some unpleasant developments, we are strongly of the view that the best option for Jonathan is to sack the board as a bait to buy peace'', the group added.

In the mean time, there is a heightened security activities in Port Harcourt. More operatives of the armed security forces, Federal Road Safety Commission and the secret police are all over the capital city.

Mrs. Rita Inoma-Abbey, a Superintendent of Police (SP) who is the spokesperson of the Nigeria Police, Rivers state Command, said the security agencies are on top of the situation, and accordingly counseled trouble-makers against taking the law into their hands.