A Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Juggernaut and former governorship candidate in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, insisted that President Buhari, should as a matter of urgency displace the Interim Management Committee and inaugurate a new NDDC management board free from any external infringement.
The PDP Chieftain who made the appeal in view of the alleged corruption, financial recklessness and voodoo fetish oaths in NDDC under the IMC as unveiled at the recent public hearing of the Senate Adhoc Committee investigating corruption allegations, urged the President to equally separate the office of NDDC from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs by returning it to its status quo.
In a statement on Wednesday made available to The Story, the former gubernatorial candidate, disclosed that the alleged sharp practices which are happening in the NDDC at a time when the nation is facing dire financial crisis, and the people of the Niger Delta are suffering untold hardship and lack of development, is not just “sad but callous”.
According to him, “As it stands, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio and the IMC have lost the moral high ground to supervise the Forensic Audit and run the affairs of the NDDC, “What he has put in place to all intents and purposes is a sham exercise”, the PDP stalwart, lamented.
Onuesoke, who described the IMC as illegal and does not follow the Act, requested for the immediate disbandment as it serves no functional purpose in the administration of the Commission.
Hear him: “In fact, Governments set up Special audits every year for ministries’ departments and agencies but not one of them is an excuse to abrogate the law of these agencies as has been done to NDDC. In this instance, the IMC is at best an interloper, a contraption, whose life at the Commission hangs by the thread of an audit it is micromanaging for the benefit of Akpabio and his men,” he alleged.
He requested that the NDDC Governing Board, which is provided for in line with the law, should be put in place immediately to run the affairs of the Board.
Onuesoke insisted that infractions against member of the IMC and NDDC must not be treated with kid gloves, if the nation must make progress.
He argued that the Senate investigation into the Akpabio and IMC alleged corruption should run its full course and all those found guilty must get the appropriate sanctions which include retrieving all money collected inappropriately, stressing that this should be the minimum in the nation’s drive to sanitize the rots in the public institutions.
On the Forensic Audit, he said: “The exercise 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”.
