ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
A militant group, the 21st Century Youths of Niger Delta and Agitators with Conscience, says the conclusion of the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission will unravel the financial malfeasance of the commission.b
The 21st CYNDAC, in a statement on Monday by its Coordinator, ‘General’ Izon Ebi, also claimed that forensic audit would unravel the alleged N19trn fund and $1bn consultancy fee expended by the past administrations without proper accountability.
The group flayed some stakeholders in the region over their alleged continuous harassment of the commission and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, saying they were misguided and confused about the NDDC’s issues.
The agitators said: “We are alarmed at the continuous harassment of the NDDC and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs by so-called critical stakeholders on the forensic audit and the inauguration of a substantive board for the commission.
“The harassment calls to question the patriotic bent and integrity indices of these so-called critical stakeholders. If we may ask, why are these stakeholders not asking about the humongous sums that have been frittered away without nothing to show for them? Why are they not interested in the malfeasance that has been the norm in the commission?
“There are the issues of the uncounted N19 trillion spendings, the $1 billion consultancy fee, etc. Rather than ask questions, their selfish concern is on a new board, not the conclusion of the forensic audit instituted by President Muhammadu Buhari to reset the commission.
“It is obvious that these critics of the commission and Godswill Akpabio are those that have put the commission in dire straits. We and other patriotic youths in the Niger Delta will not fold our arms and watch these economic buccaneers keep us back in Egypt.”
The 21st CYNDAC urged the Federal Government to first conclude the forensic audit and thereafter constitute a substantive board of the commission.
It claimed that the clamour for the immediate inauguration of the board was to muddy up the result of the forensic audit, averring that the outcome of the audit would render some of the so-called critical stakeholders culpable.
The militant group added: “We urge the Federal Government to jettison such calls. We also call on the government to treat all those issuing threats to the government about their plans to destroy critical energy infrastructure to be treated as the criminals. Enough is enough.”