ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE
Ijaw youths have accused the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, of allegedly conducting an unending forensic audit as well as illegal extension of the tenure of the Sole Administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr Efiong Akwa.
The Ijaw youths, under the auspices of Image Youth Council, also alleged that the tenure extension of the sole administrator was a deliberate attempt to delay the constitution of a substantive NDDC board.
Spokesman for the IYC, Ebilade Ekerefe, who spoke in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Wednesday, said though the conduct of the forensic audit was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari and supported by the stakeholders, Akpabio had turned it into an unending exercise to further bleed the commission of scarce funds.
He said instead of the submission of the audit report to President Buhari in April as promised and the constitution of the substantive board as demanded by stakeholders, the minister had rather extended the date for the submission of the audit report from April to July.
Ekerefe, who said the development was totally unacceptable and would be resisted, contended that Akpabio had surreptitiously extended the tenure of the sole administrator.
He said that preliminary investigation by Ijaw youths revealed that the minister and his cohorts had deliberately usurped the powers of the president and had turned the NDDC into a haven of monumental corruption as evident in the shady deals currently going on in the commission.
Ekerefe said: “In the light of the above, Ijaw youths have lost confidence in any report that will be submitted to President Buhari from the non-transparent and unending forensic audit.
“We no longer have confidence in the forensic audit because it is a mere ploy to pocket the NDDC under the whims and caprices of the minister in perpetuity.
“We want to urge the governors of the Southsouth region under the chairmanship of Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to immediately send a strong delegation to President Buhari and restate the position of the region over our displeasure and warn of the impending danger of not appointing a substantive board at a time other parts of the country are facing serious security crisis.”
Ekerefe said that from the beginning, IYC knew the antics of the minister which was why they embarked on a peaceful protest last year December on the East-West road to express their concerns.
He, however, said that the fifth columnists, probably because of their selfish interest within the region, emboldened the minister to legitimise the illegitimate Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC.
Ekerefe added: “Today, many stakeholders are all disappointed and are now ready to join the IYC in solidarity to resume the ‘mother of all protests’ to the NDDC headquarters and other strategic Federal Government agencies in the region to demand a substantive board.
“For us in the IYC, we have finished consultations with all critical stakeholders of the region and we shall be meeting to review the suspended protest and very soon, we shall inform the public of our plans.”