By Miriam Humbe
The Minister, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA), Senator Godswill Akpabio, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is the first Nigerian leader who has decided that the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) be repositioned and has ordered a forensic audit.
Akpabio who was positive that the President will leave a legacy in the Niger Delta said, “If we don’t get it right, the North East Development Commission, (NEDC) and all these Development Commissions will not be able to get it right because they will continue to see the Commission as an ATM to pluck money wherever they want”.
The Minister who disclosed this at a meeting with the Presidential Support Committee (PSC) in Abuja weekend, said the audit was different from the statutory audit which is done compulsorily in every organisation but sometimes with a lot of conflicting figures to attract the public.
Akpabio said President Muhammadu Buhari in oredering the audit of the NDDC, was trying to put up a governance structure to achieve much good for the people of the Niger Delta.
While commending the efforts of the PSC in standing behind the President to succeed and for the APC to wax stronger beyond 2023 said: “To be able to set good example for the development commission, the commencement of the full forensic audit of NDDC will charge a way forward. I will tell you, sanity has started coming into the commission.
“A lot of people who took money in the past and abandoned projects have returned to sites while many are working in various communities, and some communities are having solar power light without new contracts given while some are working on roads we never knew. Most moribund structures, we are trying to revamp them”.
Chairman, PSC, Alhaji Lawal Munir, while presenting his committee’s report to the minister, requested the federal government for economic empowerment of members of the committee to enable it perform optimally.
