Stakeholders Laud Tinubu, Akpabio for Confirming New NDDC Board

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

The Niger Delta stakeholders have applauded the efforts of President Bola Tinubu and the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over the successful screening and confirmation of the new Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) substantive governing board.

The stakeholders described the decision of President Tinubu and Senator Godswill Akpabio to speed up the processes of nomination, screening and confirmation as a demonstration of the present administration’s willingness and commitment in the development of the Niger Delta region.

The stakeholders, made up of traditional rulers, youth leaders and civil society groups, urged the new substantive governing board to aim at providing the needed checks and balances and encouraged the management team to work in the interest of the people and the
region.

They also noted that despite the over N300 billion received by the previous NDDC management in less than a year, not a single major road, bridge, hospital, or school rehabilitation project is available to showcase across the region.

The stakeholders, through their representative, Mr. Celestine Okpara, advised the new management team, including the executive directors to re-arrange the commission from its old and crude ways of operation which had enslaved the people in the region.

It also urged the team not to encourage the web of silence in the face of illegality, including the previous management’s refusal to sign the Interim Payment Certificate (IPC) of genuine contractors.

Okpara challenged the new management team to strive in alleviating the sufferings of the people in the region, stating that “scores of the indigenous contractors are sick and some are suffering and dying due to their inability to get paid by the commission and the refusal of the Director of Project Management, Mr. Nelson Onwo, to sign their IPC.

This he said would enable the contractors to show banks from where they secured loans to complete the projects.

He said that Onwo, who was personally hand-picked and positioned as Director Project Management by the former executive director projects, has allegedly become the stumbling block to the commission’s smooth operations and execution of genuine projects across the region.

“There have been numerous allegations that instead of signing the IPCs of genuine contractors, Nelson Onwo and his cohorts have allegedly been accused of selectively signing IPCs for only contractors that have either paid them or agreed to pay millions of naira or percentages for each project, while ignoring genuine contractors, this system has to change if the commission must progress.”

“We urge the incoming executive management team to immediately redeploy the Director of Project Management, Mr. Nelson Onwo, over these alleged schemes, and to cleanse the commission from previous misconducts, alleged bribery, and corruption, and direct the signing of Interim Payment Certificate (IPC) to hundreds of helpless and genuine indigenous contractors to enable them to present their IPCs to banks, and to process their payments for jobs done in accordance with the commission’s contractual obligations,” he stated.