ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
A transparency advocacy group, Young Professionals for Peace, Transparency and Development (YPPTD), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to investigate alleged N700 billion fraud at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The group also demanded the arrest and prosecution of the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, and the Interim Administrator of NDDC, Mr. Effiong Akwa over the alleged corruption under their watch.
The YPPTD in a petition sent to President Buhari and the EFCC equally requested the removal of Akwa as the Interim Administrator of the NDDC over the long expiration of his three-month tenure, lack of renewal and the immediate setting up of a substantive board for the commission.
The group alleged that the N700b fraud was perpetrated under various systems and passed through conduits.
It quoted the allegation by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) linking Akpabio in connivance with others to acts of forgery and illegal payment of N20b to ghost contractors for the fictitious disilting contract purportedly awarded by the NDDC.
The group noted that though the IYC provided alleged evidence of the sleazy process where the signatures of a former acting Managing Director of NDDC, Prof Nelson Brambaifa, and former Executive Director (Projects) Samuel Adjogbe, were forged in order to pay the ghost contractors, the EFCC failed to investigate the allegation let alone arrest the culprits.
The YPPTD wrote: “We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to act as a matter of urgency to suspend Mr. Effiong Akwa who is illegally signing payments and documents at the NDDC because the last extension of his appointment as Interim Administrator of the NDDC expired about a year ago.
“Akwa has no constitutional authority to remain at the NDDC, where he continues to sign and make payments to their cronies. He should be removed immediately.
“We have it on good authority that most of the frauds perpetrated at the NDDC were done through a corrupt process of fictitious payments to ghost contractors and the monies ended up in the accounts of Bureau De Change operators in Lagos and Abuja. This was corroborated by the IYC wherein they described the alleged patterns of fraud.
“It was discovered that out of the over N20b paid out illegally by the NDDC, 60 per cent went back to Abuja through the Bureau de Change (BDC) in order to service the pockets of few politicians with presidential ambition.
“While the NDDC has failed to pay genuine indigenous contractors that have finished their projects awarded by the commission, the commission is rather hiring thugs to chase away protesting contractors who are demanding their rightful payments.”
The group further called on Buhari to take a second review of the forensic audit ordered to review the accounts of the NDDC, alleging that the forensic audit had been tampered with and used as a negotiating process to exonerate some politicians and others to delay and sabotage the appointment of a substantive NDDC board.
The group added: “There is high level of suffering among the people of the Niger Delta due to lack of development despite the trillions of naira that has been deployed into the NDDC.
“Hundreds of petitions have been submitted to the EFCC against the NDDC management. Therefore, in the interest of justice and equity, the EFCC should arrest and prosecute the culprits over the alleged N700b fraud in line with the anti-corruption laws.
“We call on the commission to identify corrupt officials and punish them. We also expect the probe to engender radical restructuring of the country’s civil service with a view to freeing it from the fetters of graft and ineptitude that diminish administrative efficiency. The NDDC has become very predictable in its corrupt ways.
“The imposition of Akwa as Interim Administrator of the NDDC is not only illegal but an affront to the Niger Delta people. We want to state categorically that we and all progressive organizations are opposed to this thoughtless imposition in a flagrant disobedience of the NDDC Act, which spells out the manner of appointing the commission’s executive management.”