Niger Delta Development Watch (NDDW) has called on the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices
Commission (ICPC) to investigate the financial activities and transactions
of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) since inception.
The group, through its Coordinator, Joseph Ebelo, said the investigation
had become necessary in order to track the over N5 trillion that has been
expended on the Niger Delta region through the NDDC without commensurate
infrastructure development on ground to show for the humongous
expenditure.
According to the group, “The NDDC was an interventionist agency of the
Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 1999 to cushion and alleviate the
prevailing poverty in the Niger Delta region, but instead the Commission
has not improved the economic and social wellbeing of the down-trodden
people of the region.”
The group said that a member of the House of Representatives, Hon Nicholas
Mutu (an Ijaw from Delta state), who has been chairing the Committee on
NDDC since 1999, should be held responsible for the misappropriation of
funds budgeted annually by successive administrations, because of his
complicity in many of the deals as well as failure of oversight.
It alleged that Mutu has been colluding with some top officials of the
NDDC and contractors to defraud the Commission of tax-payers’ money in the
award of contracts that were never executed.
The group referred to the multi-billion naira Nworie River Dredging
contract, among others, which was never executed while payments were made
to Roudo Nigeria Limited owned by Chief Tony Chukwu, who was said to have
been awarded a contract before the 2015 general election by the NDCC to
supply 50 Toyota Prado Jeeps. He allegedly failed to also execute the
contract.
A former Imo State governor (Ikedi Ohakim), the group alleged, was also
involved in the bogus Nworie River Dredging contract.
According to the group, “So much money has been siphoned from the NDDC
coffers through contractors and many other phony deals through the
instrumentality of the Hon Nichola Mutu-led Committee on NDDC in the House
of Representatives.
“The buck stops at his table as the Chairman of the NDDC Committee since
1999. Rather than ensure proper oversight of the activities of the NDDC in
order to accelerate infrastructure development of the region through
judicious use of funds, he has promoted his pecuniary interests over and
above the collective interest of the region.”
The group said Hon Mutu, who has won re-election into the 8th National
Assembly, must be called to account, threatening that that it would not
sit idly and watch him perpetuate himself as live chairman of the NDDC
Committee in the House of Representatives only for his personal
aggrandisement.
“If the hard stance of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration
against corruption will hold sway, matters like this one which has denied
the oil-rich region of the Niger Delta its right to rapid development,
should be quickly dealt with through a comprehensive probe of the
financial activities of the Commission since it was established.
“We therefore call on the security and anti-corruption agencies like the
EFCC and the ICPC to swing into action of investigating those who are
involved in the alleged looting and financial misappropriation in the NDDC
since its inception, including a certain Deputy Director (Projects) from
Delta state, who is fingered in the sale of contract papers to highest
bidders and putting up documents for payment for contractors in whom he
has vested interests,” the group said.