Civil Society Organisation, Niger Delta Elders’ Forum (NDEF), has described as imaginary the touted “turnaround” of NDDC under what they called the illegal sole administrator contraption currently administering the Commission in breach of the NDDC Act.

In its reaction to an article titled “Effiong Akwa and NDDC’s Turnaround” by Ogbu Nweke, published in The Guardian of March 6, 2022, Chief Tonye Ogbogbula, National President of NDEF, stated that “at a time when the illegal Sole Administrator contraption administering NDDC is enmeshed in unending scandals of immense proportions, authentic stakeholders in the Niger Delta region are alarmed by the outlandish claims” which he described as “a weak attempt to turn truth and logic on its head, and thereby try to divert attention from the legitimate demands of Niger Deltans for the inauguration of NDDC’s board in accordance with the law, the NDDC Act.”

NDEF noted that presently the media is awash with the “doubly-restated scandal involving the illegal sole administrator contraption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).” 
The group quoted the Daily Independent, other national newspapers, and many online platforms, in a story entitled “NDDC: IYC Alleges Illegal N20bn Payment To Ghost Contractors Over Phantom Job,” published on February 18, 2022, that the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) alleged that illegal N20bn payment was made to ghost contractors over phantom jobs.

In the reports, IYC alleged that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, “paid the sum of N20 billion to ghost contractors for phony distilling contracts purportedly awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).”

A spokesman for the IYC, Ebilade Ekerefe, who spoke in Yenagoa alleged that the “phantom NDDC contractors were paid in tranches of between N300 million and N400 million in the last three months, amounting to N20 billion.”

He urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to launch an investigation into the alleged huge payment to the ghost contractors.

NDEF also stated that “nothing more poignantly illustrates the sleaze ongoing in NDDC under the illegal sole administrator contraption” than the scathing editorial of ThisDay Newspaper, “NDDC AND THE ANTI-GRAFT HOAX” published on Wednesday, February 23, 2022. The newspaper categorically stated that the “disrepute into which the commission (NDDC) has fallen in the last seven years is a sad commentary on the avowed commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption as a cardinal undertaking. Despite the agitations of critical stakeholders, the commission also remains without a substantive board. The minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio prefers to treat affairs of the NDDC more like a private estate by saddling the commission with cronies.”
 Ogbogbula also stated that other allegations of scandal against the current sole administrator contraption at NDDC include the allegation in December 2021 by the Association of Contractors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (ACNDDC) who picketed the NDDC Head Office in Port Harcourt. 
The group quoted a report in ThisDay on December 8, 2021, entitled “NDDC Contractors Decry Mismanagement, Demand Board Inauguration,” in which the Chairman of ACNDDC, Joe Adia stated that “we hear money comes in, the next thing we hear the money is finished. Who are you paying? Give us a record of the people you are paying. How can you pay N800 million each and above for desilting yet contractors’ ticket of N5 million you can’t even pay? We cannot die for the jobs we have done for the region. We are saying, you pay us now.” NDEF also drew attention to the report by The Nation newspaper on February 1, 2022 under the headline “Niger Delta women threaten to name, shame persons (allegedly) diverting NDDC funds,” in which the Wailing Women of the Niger Delta (WWND) decried the alleged “ongoing embezzlement of funds allocated to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the illegal sole administrator under the current Minister for Niger Delta Affairs. This is with a view to demand accountability.” 
According to the Coordinator of WWND Odighonin Adienbo, “What have the funds coming to the NDDC been used for since the illegal appointment of a sole administrator in sheer defiance of the NDDC Act without a proper board? More so as contractors are not being paid and no projects are embarked upon under the guise of forensic audit report. The current situation in the region can only be likened to a crime against humanity and we will not accept it.” However, according to NDEF, “over and above the non-existent “turnaround” in NDDC credited to the sole administrator contraption administering the Commission and the ongoing alleged sleaze pervading NDDC, is the unwavering and legitimate demands of authentic stakeholders of the region that President Muhammadu Buhari should comply with the law, NDDC Act – end the ongoing illegality of administering NDDC with a sole administrator contraption that is unknown to the NDDC Act, and inaugurate a substantive board for the Commission – which thereby guarantees equitable representation of the nine constituent states, and also fulfil his own promise of June 24, 2021 to inaugurate the NDDC Board upon receipt of the forensic audit report, which report he received seven months ago on September 2, 2021.” The group maintained that the “continued administration of the NDDC by Interim sole administrator is illegal because the NDDC Act has no provision for this illegality as the NDDC Act only provides that the Board and Management of the NDDC at any point in time should follow the provisions of the law which states that the Board and management is to be appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate.” 
Ogbogbula stated that “nobody is supposed to begin to administer the NDDC and utilise the huge funds accruing to it on a monthly basis without passing through this legal requirement as stipulated in the NDDC Act,” stating that “the situation currently in NDDC which has subsisted for over two years is that the illegal sole administrator is both Managing Director, Executive Director of Finance, and Executive Director Projects, in clear breach of NDDC Act which ensures separation of these duties to ensure checks and balances.” 
Niger Delta Elders’ Forum observed that “as in other sponsored articles, Ogbu Nweke regurgitated the completion of NDDC Head office building, the completion of Omagwa Police barracks in Port Harcourt, and Students’ hostel in University of Uyo, as “turnaround” accomplishments of Akwa as illegal sole administrator of NDDC.” Ogbogbula however noted that “under the illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions, the combined two-year budget for 2019 and 2020, as approved by the National Assembly was N799 Billion. The three projects above touted as accomplishments do not therefore justify the huge N799 Billion budgetary approval for the illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions currently administering NDDC moreso that each of these three projects were already eighty percent completed by 2019 when the illegal interim management/sole administrator contraptions were appointed.” NDEF drew attention that Professor Benjamin Okaba, President of Ijaw National Congress (INC), pointed out that under the interim management/sole administrator contraptions, “over N600bn payments have been made for emergency contracts; over 1,000 persons have been allegedly employed in the NDDC between January and July, 2020 without due process; the 2020 budget (which lapsed on December 31, 2021) was passed in December 2020 and N400bn was voted for the NDDC but the Commission had spent over N190bn before the budget was passed, thereby violating the Procurement Act.” NDEF noted its regret that to the “detriment of the nine states of the Niger Delta region, illegal interim contraptions/sole administrator have been used to fleece the NDDC of its funds in the last two years.” 
NDEF urged President Buhari to be “concerned about the disdain of the Niger Delta people over the manner he has handled the NDDC, most especially administering the Commission with illegal interim management/sole administrator contraptions for four and a half years in his nearly seven years in office, and therefore needs to end the ongoing illegality in NDDC if he is to be remembered for good in the Niger Delta.”

The group also observed that whereas the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has been allowed to function with its duly constituted Board in place in line with its NEDC Act thereby ensuring proper corporate governance, accountability, checks and balances and fair representation of its constituent states, the NDDC on the other hand has been run arbitrarily in the last two years by Interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act. NDEF stated that it aligns with other authentic Niger Delta stakeholders and “demand an end to the ongoing illegal sole administratorship at the NDDC, inauguration of the NDDC Governing Board in line with the NDDC Act to represent the nine constituent states, and thereby ensure proper corporate governance, accountability, transparency, and probity in managing the Commission.” 

Civil Society Organisation, Niger Delta Elders’ Forum (NDEF), has described as imaginary the touted “turnaround” of NDDC under what they called the illegal sole administrator contraption currently administering the Commission in breach of the NDDC Act.

In its reaction to an article titled “Effiong Akwa and NDDC’s Turnaround” by Ogbu Nweke, published in The Guardian of March 6, 2022, Chief Tonye Ogbogbula, National President of NDEF, stated that “at a time when the illegal Sole Administrator contraption administering NDDC is enmeshed in unending scandals of immense proportions, authentic stakeholders in the Niger Delta region are alarmed by the outlandish claims” which he described as “a weak attempt to turn truth and logic on its head, and thereby try to divert attention from the legitimate demands of Niger Deltans for the inauguration of NDDC’s board in accordance with the law, the NDDC Act.”

NDEF noted that presently the media is awash with the “doubly-restated scandal involving the illegal sole administrator contraption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).” 
The group quoted the Daily Independent, other national newspapers, and many online platforms, in a story entitled “NDDC: IYC Alleges Illegal N20bn Payment To Ghost Contractors Over Phantom Job,” published on February 18, 2022, that the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) alleged that illegal N20bn payment was made to ghost contractors over phantom jobs.

In the reports, IYC alleged that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, “paid the sum of N20 billion to ghost contractors for phony distilling contracts purportedly awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).”

A spokesman for the IYC, Ebilade Ekerefe, who spoke in Yenagoa alleged that the “phantom NDDC contractors were paid in tranches of between N300 million and N400 million in the last three months, amounting to N20 billion.”

He urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to launch an investigation into the alleged huge payment to the ghost contractors.

NDEF also stated that “nothing more poignantly illustrates the sleaze ongoing in NDDC under the illegal sole administrator contraption” than the scathing editorial of ThisDay Newspaper, “NDDC AND THE ANTI-GRAFT HOAX” published on Wednesday, February 23, 2022. The newspaper categorically stated that the “disrepute into which the commission (NDDC) has fallen in the last seven years is a sad commentary on the avowed commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption as a cardinal undertaking. Despite the agitations of critical stakeholders, the commission also remains without a substantive board. The minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio prefers to treat affairs of the NDDC more like a private estate by saddling the commission with cronies.”
 Ogbogbula also stated that other allegations of scandal against the current sole administrator contraption at NDDC include the allegation in December 2021 by the Association of Contractors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (ACNDDC) who picketed the NDDC Head Office in Port Harcourt. 
The group quoted a report in ThisDay on December 8, 2021, entitled “NDDC Contractors Decry Mismanagement, Demand Board Inauguration,” in which the Chairman of ACNDDC, Joe Adia stated that “we hear money comes in, the next thing we hear the money is finished. Who are you paying? Give us a record of the people you are paying. How can you pay N800 million each and above for desilting yet contractors’ ticket of N5 million you can’t even pay? We cannot die for the jobs we have done for the region. We are saying, you pay us now.” NDEF also drew attention to the report by The Nation newspaper on February 1, 2022 under the headline “Niger Delta women threaten to name, shame persons (allegedly) diverting NDDC funds,” in which the Wailing Women of the Niger Delta (WWND) decried the alleged “ongoing embezzlement of funds allocated to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the illegal sole administrator under the current Minister for Niger Delta Affairs. This is with a view to demand accountability.” 
According to the Coordinator of WWND Odighonin Adienbo, “What have the funds coming to the NDDC been used for since the illegal appointment of a sole administrator in sheer defiance of the NDDC Act without a proper board? More so as contractors are not being paid and no projects are embarked upon under the guise of forensic audit report. The current situation in the region can only be likened to a crime against humanity and we will not accept it.” However, according to NDEF, “over and above the non-existent “turnaround” in NDDC credited to the sole administrator contraption administering the Commission and the ongoing alleged sleaze pervading NDDC, is the unwavering and legitimate demands of authentic stakeholders of the region that President Muhammadu Buhari should comply with the law, NDDC Act – end the ongoing illegality of administering NDDC with a sole administrator contraption that is unknown to the NDDC Act, and inaugurate a substantive board for the Commission – which thereby guarantees equitable representation of the nine constituent states, and also fulfil his own promise of June 24, 2021 to inaugurate the NDDC Board upon receipt of the forensic audit report, which report he received seven months ago on September 2, 2021.” The group maintained that the “continued administration of the NDDC by Interim sole administrator is illegal because the NDDC Act has no provision for this illegality as the NDDC Act only provides that the Board and Management of the NDDC at any point in time should follow the provisions of the law which states that the Board and management is to be appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate.” 
Ogbogbula stated that “nobody is supposed to begin to administer the NDDC and utilise the huge funds accruing to it on a monthly basis without passing through this legal requirement as stipulated in the NDDC Act,” stating that “the situation currently in NDDC which has subsisted for over two years is that the illegal sole administrator is both Managing Director, Executive Director of Finance, and Executive Director Projects, in clear breach of NDDC Act which ensures separation of these duties to ensure checks and balances.” 
Niger Delta Elders’ Forum observed that “as in other sponsored articles, Ogbu Nweke regurgitated the completion of NDDC Head office building, the completion of Omagwa Police barracks in Port Harcourt, and Students’ hostel in University of Uyo, as “turnaround” accomplishments of Akwa as illegal sole administrator of NDDC.” Ogbogbula however noted that “under the illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions, the combined two-year budget for 2019 and 2020, as approved by the National Assembly was N799 Billion. The three projects above touted as accomplishments do not therefore justify the huge N799 Billion budgetary approval for the illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions currently administering NDDC moreso that each of these three projects were already eighty percent completed by 2019 when the illegal interim management/sole administrator contraptions were appointed.” NDEF drew attention that Professor Benjamin Okaba, President of Ijaw National Congress (INC), pointed out that under the interim management/sole administrator contraptions, “over N600bn payments have been made for emergency contracts; over 1,000 persons have been allegedly employed in the NDDC between January and July, 2020 without due process; the 2020 budget (which lapsed on December 31, 2021) was passed in December 2020 and N400bn was voted for the NDDC but the Commission had spent over N190bn before the budget was passed, thereby violating the Procurement Act.” NDEF noted its regret that to the “detriment of the nine states of the Niger Delta region, illegal interim contraptions/sole administrator have been used to fleece the NDDC of its funds in the last two years.” 
NDEF urged President Buhari to be “concerned about the disdain of the Niger Delta people over the manner he has handled the NDDC, most especially administering the Commission with illegal interim management/sole administrator contraptions for four and a half years in his nearly seven years in office, and therefore needs to end the ongoing illegality in NDDC if he is to be remembered for good in the Niger Delta.”

The group also observed that whereas the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has been allowed to function with its duly constituted Board in place in line with its NEDC Act thereby ensuring proper corporate governance, accountability, checks and balances and fair representation of its constituent states, the NDDC on the other hand has been run arbitrarily in the last two years by Interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act. NDEF stated that it aligns with other authentic Niger Delta stakeholders and “demand an end to the ongoing illegal sole administratorship at the NDDC, inauguration of the NDDC Governing Board in line with the NDDC Act to represent the nine constituent states, and thereby ensure proper corporate governance, accountability, transparency, and probity in managing the Commission.” 

Civil Society Organisation, Niger Delta Elders’ Forum (NDEF), has described as imaginary the touted “turnaround” of NDDC under what they called the illegal sole administrator contraption currently administering the Commission in breach of the NDDC Act.

In its reaction to an article titled “Effiong Akwa and NDDC’s Turnaround” by Ogbu Nweke, published in The Guardian of March 6, 2022, Chief Tonye Ogbogbula, National President of NDEF, stated that “at a time when the illegal Sole Administrator contraption administering NDDC is enmeshed in unending scandals of immense proportions, authentic stakeholders in the Niger Delta region are alarmed by the outlandish claims” which he described as “a weak attempt to turn truth and logic on its head, and thereby try to divert attention from the legitimate demands of Niger Deltans for the inauguration of NDDC’s board in accordance with the law, the NDDC Act.”

NDEF noted that presently the media is awash with the “doubly-restated scandal involving the illegal sole administrator contraption in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).” 
The group quoted the Daily Independent, other national newspapers, and many online platforms, in a story entitled “NDDC: IYC Alleges Illegal N20bn Payment To Ghost Contractors Over Phantom Job,” published on February 18, 2022, that the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) alleged that illegal N20bn payment was made to ghost contractors over phantom jobs.

In the reports, IYC alleged that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, “paid the sum of N20 billion to ghost contractors for phony distilling contracts purportedly awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).”

A spokesman for the IYC, Ebilade Ekerefe, who spoke in Yenagoa alleged that the “phantom NDDC contractors were paid in tranches of between N300 million and N400 million in the last three months, amounting to N20 billion.”

He urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to launch an investigation into the alleged huge payment to the ghost contractors.

NDEF also stated that “nothing more poignantly illustrates the sleaze ongoing in NDDC under the illegal sole administrator contraption” than the scathing editorial of ThisDay Newspaper, “NDDC AND THE ANTI-GRAFT HOAX” published on Wednesday, February 23, 2022. The newspaper categorically stated that the “disrepute into which the commission (NDDC) has fallen in the last seven years is a sad commentary on the avowed commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption as a cardinal undertaking. Despite the agitations of critical stakeholders, the commission also remains without a substantive board. The minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio prefers to treat affairs of the NDDC more like a private estate by saddling the commission with cronies.”
 Ogbogbula also stated that other allegations of scandal against the current sole administrator contraption at NDDC include the allegation in December 2021 by the Association of Contractors of the Niger Delta Development Commission (ACNDDC) who picketed the NDDC Head Office in Port Harcourt. 
The group quoted a report in ThisDay on December 8, 2021, entitled “NDDC Contractors Decry Mismanagement, Demand Board Inauguration,” in which the Chairman of ACNDDC, Joe Adia stated that “we hear money comes in, the next thing we hear the money is finished. Who are you paying? Give us a record of the people you are paying. How can you pay N800 million each and above for desilting yet contractors’ ticket of N5 million you can’t even pay? We cannot die for the jobs we have done for the region. We are saying, you pay us now.” NDEF also drew attention to the report by The Nation newspaper on February 1, 2022 under the headline “Niger Delta women threaten to name, shame persons (allegedly) diverting NDDC funds,” in which the Wailing Women of the Niger Delta (WWND) decried the alleged “ongoing embezzlement of funds allocated to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) under the illegal sole administrator under the current Minister for Niger Delta Affairs. This is with a view to demand accountability.” 
According to the Coordinator of WWND Odighonin Adienbo, “What have the funds coming to the NDDC been used for since the illegal appointment of a sole administrator in sheer defiance of the NDDC Act without a proper board? More so as contractors are not being paid and no projects are embarked upon under the guise of forensic audit report. The current situation in the region can only be likened to a crime against humanity and we will not accept it.” However, according to NDEF, “over and above the non-existent “turnaround” in NDDC credited to the sole administrator contraption administering the Commission and the ongoing alleged sleaze pervading NDDC, is the unwavering and legitimate demands of authentic stakeholders of the region that President Muhammadu Buhari should comply with the law, NDDC Act – end the ongoing illegality of administering NDDC with a sole administrator contraption that is unknown to the NDDC Act, and inaugurate a substantive board for the Commission – which thereby guarantees equitable representation of the nine constituent states, and also fulfil his own promise of June 24, 2021 to inaugurate the NDDC Board upon receipt of the forensic audit report, which report he received seven months ago on September 2, 2021.” The group maintained that the “continued administration of the NDDC by Interim sole administrator is illegal because the NDDC Act has no provision for this illegality as the NDDC Act only provides that the Board and Management of the NDDC at any point in time should follow the provisions of the law which states that the Board and management is to be appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate.” 
Ogbogbula stated that “nobody is supposed to begin to administer the NDDC and utilise the huge funds accruing to it on a monthly basis without passing through this legal requirement as stipulated in the NDDC Act,” stating that “the situation currently in NDDC which has subsisted for over two years is that the illegal sole administrator is both Managing Director, Executive Director of Finance, and Executive Director Projects, in clear breach of NDDC Act which ensures separation of these duties to ensure checks and balances.” 
Niger Delta Elders’ Forum observed that “as in other sponsored articles, Ogbu Nweke regurgitated the completion of NDDC Head office building, the completion of Omagwa Police barracks in Port Harcourt, and Students’ hostel in University of Uyo, as “turnaround” accomplishments of Akwa as illegal sole administrator of NDDC.” Ogbogbula however noted that “under the illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions, the combined two-year budget for 2019 and 2020, as approved by the National Assembly was N799 Billion. The three projects above touted as accomplishments do not therefore justify the huge N799 Billion budgetary approval for the illegal interim managements/sole administrator contraptions currently administering NDDC moreso that each of these three projects were already eighty percent completed by 2019 when the illegal interim management/sole administrator contraptions were appointed.” NDEF drew attention that Professor Benjamin Okaba, President of Ijaw National Congress (INC), pointed out that under the interim management/sole administrator contraptions, “over N600bn payments have been made for emergency contracts; over 1,000 persons have been allegedly employed in the NDDC between January and July, 2020 without due process; the 2020 budget (which lapsed on December 31, 2021) was passed in December 2020 and N400bn was voted for the NDDC but the Commission had spent over N190bn before the budget was passed, thereby violating the Procurement Act.” NDEF noted its regret that to the “detriment of the nine states of the Niger Delta region, illegal interim contraptions/sole administrator have been used to fleece the NDDC of its funds in the last two years.” 
NDEF urged President Buhari to be “concerned about the disdain of the Niger Delta people over the manner he has handled the NDDC, most especially administering the Commission with illegal interim management/sole administrator contraptions for four and a half years in his nearly seven years in office, and therefore needs to end the ongoing illegality in NDDC if he is to be remembered for good in the Niger Delta.”

The group also observed that whereas the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has been allowed to function with its duly constituted Board in place in line with its NEDC Act thereby ensuring proper corporate governance, accountability, checks and balances and fair representation of its constituent states, the NDDC on the other hand has been run arbitrarily in the last two years by Interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act. NDEF stated that it aligns with other authentic Niger Delta stakeholders and “demand an end to the ongoing illegal sole administratorship at the NDDC, inauguration of the NDDC Governing Board in line with the NDDC Act to represent the nine constituent states, and thereby ensure proper corporate governance, accountability, transparency, and probity in managing the Commission.”