THE SUN

Niger Delta group has  rejected moves to include Lagos, Bauchi and Ogun states as members’ states of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The rejection was contained in a communiqué issued after the meeting of the Conference of Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CPGNDEN) held over the weekend in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

A bill seeking an amendment to the NDDC Act for the inclusion of the three states and future oil-producing states in the commission, sponsored by Senator Solomon Adeola of Lagos West, passed second reading at the Senate last week Wednesday.

In a reaction to the proposed amendment, the group described the bill as a calculated attempt to smuggle the affected states into the commission.

President of CPGNDEN, Professor Benjamin Okaba, who read the communiqué before journalists, said the entire exercise was aimed at distorting the Niger Delta as a geographical area.

The communiqué read in part: “Our attention has also been drawn at the deliberate attempt to smuggle into the NDDC Act some non-contiguous states that defy the geographical definition of the Niger Delta as a geographical zone.

“This is totally condemnable and we state categorically that such states should be described as oil-producing and made to enjoy just 13 per cent derivation.

“The NDDC is meant to serve the development expectations of the people of the Niger Delta as an interventionist agency based on the age-long deprivation and environmental degradation, which is part of the recommendations of the Willinks Commission Report (of 1958).”

On the present situation at the NDDC, Okaba, who is also the President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), argued that the running of the NDDC by a sole administrator was contrary to the law establishing the commission.

According to him it is disappointing that the Federal Government has refusal to publish the forensic audit report of the NDDC,

While calling on the government to demonstrate its commitment to openness to underscore the integrity of the entire process, Okaba urged the government “to initiate and bring to completion the process for the recovery of funds from contractors, firms, politicians, and staff, among others, indicted by the forensic audit report.”

He further called for the setting up of an administrative/criminal proceeding to prosecute those found culpable in the sleaze at the NDDC for punishment.

   He said CPGNDEN as a body call on President Muhammadu Buhari to keep his promise and inaugurate a substantive board for the commission following the submission of the forensic report, and in line with the law establishing the agency.