The governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, said on Monday that he would expose the wrongdoing of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The governor claimed that politicians now use the NDDC as a source of income. He said it is regrettable that the NDDC oversees the underdevelopment of the Niger Delta region and its inhabitants.
Wike spoke at the ceremony to start building the Elele internal roads in the Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state.
NDDC has turned into a money maker for politicians, he claimed. “The President just installed the NDDC’s new Board. Budget for NDDC of N500bn.
“The election will start on February 25. The National Assembly has been under pressure from the lawmakers to approve the N500 billion budget for NDDC.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader claimed that despite significant sums of money being spent on the region’s development, the residents of the Niger Delta do not see the results.
“At the end of the day, you can’t really see what $500 billion for the Niger Delta will do. Who are the people in charge of the Niger Delta? He questioned, “Are they not our children?”
Wike also said that the NDDC forced unneeded projects on the people even though it didn’t know what they wanted.
The governor told the new head of the NDDC, Lauretta Onochie, to use the commission’s increased budget in a way that helps the people of the Niger Delta.
“I’m going to use this budget to see whether you’ll agree with your management to let this N500 billion go into private pockets. I’ll utilise this to put our sister Onochie, the chairman of NDDC, to the test.
“This N500 billion has our eyes wide open. I’ve instructed the Attorney General to get ready to oppose them in court. I’ll expose them in this case, Wike stated.
The government of Olusegun Obasanjo set up the NDDC in 2000 to help develop the oil-rich but environmentally dangerous Niger Delta region.Some of the states that are part of the NDDC region are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers.
The Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs is in charge of the NDDC. However, the commission has been plagued by gross misconduct and corruption, so from 2001 to 2019 a forensic investigation was done on the organization.
