Akpabio Has Killed NDDC -Egbesu Leader
3 min read
Leader of the Supreme Egbesu Assembly, SEA, Sergeant Werinipre Digifa has accused the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio of killing the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
Digifa said in a telephone interview with TNN that Akpabio set out to pocket the NDDC and run it the way he wanted, hence his decision to push for a sole administrator instead of a board for the commission.
According to Digifa, the dreams of the founding fathers of the region had been rubbished as Akpabio did not allow the commission to make progress.
He said Akpabio was only hiding under a so-called forensic audit of the NDDC to take over and control the NDDC as he wanted. He said the commission died a long time ago.
He said after the days of Timi Alaibe as managing director of the commission, the NDDC had not been the same. He lamented that NDDC got buried finally by Akpabio when he fought and secured control of the commission.
“NDDC is just like a place of jamboree, a kind of crazy market where everybody goes. It is just like the city of Sodom and Gomorarah, peoples commit crime and nobody says anything, so that is my assessment on NDDC.
“NDDC is not something to write home about. It is about the most corrupt place. Akpabio took control of the place, he made sure it is no more in the hands of The Presidency as is provided for in the enabling law.
Akpabio was nowhere to be found when we fought for and got the NDDC. Now, he has hijacked the place and put it in his back pocket. How can one man take control and run the NDDC when the law says each of the nine states should be part of the running of the commission.”
“Akpabio thinks he has fooled all of us. He thinks he is the wisest person on earth and that is because the elders and owners of the land have allowed him to do what he likes. NDDC has become his personal estate; so he does whatever he likes.
“If we were in a sane society, if we were in a country where the president knows what he is doing, Akpabio would not do what he is doing.”
Digifa said it was painful that a lot of people who would have stopped Akpabio from achieving his dream at the NDDC were the same people either going to the minister at night for favours or accepting to hold midnight meetings with him for some gifts in return.
“The people who are supposed to speak out for the region are not doing so because their hands are soiled. They are no longer speaking and condemning what Akpabio is doing in the NDDC.
“Akpabio wants to do forensic audit in the NDDC forever. Early this year, he told us the NDDC board will come in by end of April. Now, this is May. What has happened? He is now talking of July. After July, he will say October. This is what he is doing and we are all quiet. Who did this to us? Are we all fools and zombies in for Akpabio?
Digifa said the federal government should hasten and retrieve the NDDC from the hands of Akpabio by returning it to The Presidency as prescribed by the law establishing the commission.
“There is a lot of agitation everywhere in the country. Akpabio is using forensic audit as a delay tactics, to be a sole administrator to manage NDDC like a family business.
“We say no to this. Akpabio is probably taking advantage of what is going on in Nigeria as there is no leadership. As far as I am concerned, there is no leadership in Nigeria, the leadership is dead, so Akpabio is using that opportunity to do what he wants to do.
“The president is not in control. We are begging Nigeria, if there is a leadership, if there is Buhari, if really he is still a president, he should sack the sole administrator of NDDC and bring in a board to run the place.
