Renaissance Coalition seeks NDDC board, dissolution of IMC
Niger Delta Renaissance Coalition has demanded the immediate sacking of the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) following allegations of corruption and financial recklessness unraveled during the probe by the National Assembly.
This was contained in a signed statement issued on Friday by Comrade Ebi Arogbofa, Director of Information, Strategy and Programs.
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The statement reads in part: “The findings of the committee and its recommendations are not surprising to Niger Deltans (and Nigerians in general) who watched the IMC’s arrogant and brazen admission to financial recklessness and self-gratification at the Public Hearing by the Committee. Nigerians were also treated to the evidences of undue selfish interventions by Niger Delta Minister, Chief Godswill Akpabio, in the NDDC, which clearly makes him a facilitator of the mismanagement by the IMC and, therefore, unfit to continue to supervise the Commission and the forensic audit.
“With the revelations from the Committee’s investigation, it should be clear to all why Akpabio and his illegal IMC sought desperately to avoid public scrutiny. The NDDC cannot afford to have another legally inchoate interim management any further. This is a point that stakeholders from the region agree on. An interim management is also not consistent with the NDDC Act and due process. It is time to put an end to it, and inaugurate the Governing Board.”
The coalition therefore resolved: “The IMC is not provided for in the NDDC Act and serves no functional purpose in the administration of the NDDC.
“The forensic audit has to be done by a reputable independent auditor, creditably and independently, just as the NNPC audit was done by Price Waterhouse a few years back while the legitimate Board and Management was still in place. The Board and Management of the NNPC were not set aside for an IMC in order to do the audit. The audit was done independently.
“We want to emphasize that the Niger Delta people are fully behind all legitimate efforts by the Buhari administration to strengthen the NDDC. This is why we resist all attempts to produce a stage-managed forensic audit report, which is what Akpabio and the IMC want to do. The Governing Board of the NDDC should be put in place immediately in line with the NDDC Act. The NDDC should be run in line with the law and its governance institutions strengthened.”
