The Acting Executive Director, Finance, of the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC), Ibanga Bassey Etang, is reportedly dead.
Details are of demise are not clear yet, but circulating
information says he might have been poisoned.
Etang’s body has been reportedly taken to a section of the
Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.
The director’s demise occurred amid probe of the NDDC by the
Nigerian Senate.
The intervention agency is under investigation for alleged
mismanagement of N40 bilion.
On Wednesday, the Red Chamber of the National Assembly vowed
to unearth the truth and expose the culprits.
On February 19, President Muhammadu appointed an Interim
Management Committee (IMC) for the commission.
Joy Nunieh was replaced with Kemebradikumo Pondei as the
Acting Managing Director.
Again, on February 26, Buhari approved the composition of a
Monitoring Committee. Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio is the
Chairman.
Two months later (April 30), the IMC tenure was extended
from May 1 to December 31, 2020.
In the past few years, the series of
fire and hire, occasioned by alleged corruption and power play, seem to have
dragged the agency to the background.
NDDC, tasked with developing oil-producing states, remains
enmeshed in scandals with no major prosecution of culpable officials.
Nigerians now await the report of the forensic audit ordered
by the President, although many are skeptical about the outcome.
This is not unexpected as previous probes did not achieve
much; officials indicted still walk freely.
The current audit, according to Akpabio, costs about N318
million. Messrs Olumuyiwa Bashiru and Co. are the lead consultants.
The minister added that estimated period given by the Bureau
of Public Procurement (BPP) to conclude the exercise was nine months.
Meanwhile, the federal lawmakers have been charged to rescue
the NDDC from “the grip of criminal elements in the ministry, the illegally
constituted IMC and collaborators in the presidency”.
The call was made by Uwem Bassey Okon, Founder of the Akwa
Ibom Patriotic Front.
A statement he issued on Thursday suggested that Etang was
“poisoned to death”.
He said those behind the act wee desperate to frustrate the
inquiry of the commission.
The rights activist said the situation at NDDC was an
“injustice to the Niger Delta region and an unending debacle caused by
executive recklessness”.
Okon declared that what is going on was “deliberately
foisted to deny the oil rich region human capital and infrastructural
development.”
The Akwa Ibom chief told the Senate that it has “the powers
to resolve the ongoing charade in the NDDC and right the wrong it created”.
He accused the legislators of allegedly “caving in to coup”
after they had vowed not to deal with “the illegal IMC unknown to the NDDC
Establishment Act, 2000”.
“The National Assembly must assert its powers and cease all
official dealings with the illegitimate body. The time to act is now and save
the institution from being regarded as rubber stamp to the executive arm,” Okon
charged.
Details shortly…
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