Anti-corruption crusader commends NASS on its decision to probe NDDC

By Akpos Oghenetega,

Niger Delta Activist, Mr Iteveh Ekpokpobe has applauded the National Assembly decision to probe the activities of Minister of Niger Delta, Mr Godswill Akpabio and the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC.

Iteveh, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants in a chat with some selected journalists at Warri, Delta State, urged the National Assembly to ensure due diligence in their processes in order to promote and entrench the culture of fiscal responsibility in the operations of the commission.

The anti-graft advocate lamented that the NDDC was due for a total overhaul, in view of the recent report of financial recklessness in the management of the commissions’ found which lacks accountability and transparency.

He stated that the visible recklessness that prompted President Muhammad Buhari to set up the Interim Management Committee while ordering a forensic audit was totally defeated considering the alarming issues of corruption emanating from the IMC.

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His words, “I adopt the position of Senator George Sekibo who argued on the floor of the senate that ‘the President’s action of setting up an IMC and the forensic audit may have been conceived to forestall the financial recklessness of the commission and reposition it for fast-tracking of the development of the region, but the IMC was more bedevilled with the same financial misuse, misapplication, misappropriation or outright fraud in the management of the funds of the commission’.”

“The details are gory, that the Commission, within the last three months, spent over N40 billion of the commission’s fund without recourse to established processes of funds disbursement which has opened up further suspicion among stakeholders of the Niger Delta Region. This should not be encouraged. The National Assembly should ensure to leave no stone unturned,” he said.

He also commended stakeholders across the Niger Delta for their resilience in the fight for the emancipation of the region.