President Muhammadu Buhari has
ordered a forensic audit of the operations of the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC) from 2001 to 2019.
The president gave the directive
when he received governors of the states in the Niger Delta region at the
presidential villa in Abuja on Thursday.
The president said the directive
had become imperative in view of the persistent criticisms of the operations of
the commission.
He said what is currently on
ground in the Niger Delta does not justify the huge resources that have been
made available to the commission.
“I try to follow the Act setting
up these institutions, especially the NDDC. With the amount of money that the
Federal Government has religiously allocated to the NDDC, we will like to see
the results on the ground; those that are responsible for that have to explain
certain issues,” he said.
“The projects said to have been
done must be verifiable. You just cannot say you spent so much billions and
when the place is visited, one cannot see the structures that have been done.
“The consultants must also prove
that they are competent,’’ he said.
Buhari admitted that developing
the Niger Delta area required enormous resources compared to other parts of the
country with firmer lands.
“I am very much aware, with my
experience, that projects in your area are very expensive; that is why if any
job is given, we must make sure that the company is competent and has the
capacity to do it well, with experienced consultants,” he added.
The president, however, said that
he would wait for the report of the audit before deciding on the next line of
action regarding the commission.
Seriake Dickson, governor of
Bayelsa, who led his colleagues, had earlier expressed the disappointment of
other governors with the operations of the NDDC.
He said the commission’s
operations had been characterised by poor choice of projects, shoddy handling,
uncompleted jobs and lack of required support for the efforts of the states and
local governments in its areas of coverage.
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