Leaders of ex-agitators have called on the new governing board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to publish names of persons indicted by the forensic audit report of the commission.
Speaking for other leaders after an emergency meeting of ex-agitators in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Tuesday, Nature Kieghe Dumale, explained that making identities of such persons public would act as a warning to others seeking to do business with the commission.
Dumale commended the leadership style of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana and congratulated the board, which has Dr. Sam Ogbuku as the Managing Director and Lauretta Onochie as the Chairperson.
But Dumale appealed to the new board to win the hearts of the people by naming politicians, contractors and firms, that were accused by the report of mismanaging their engagements with the commission.
Dumale, who is the Chairman of Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) Strategic Communication Committee (SCC) appealed to the board to initiate an inquiry into how former Interim Administrators of the commission spent about N300bn that accrued to the NDDC within his tenure.
He said the board by publishing the names of those indicted by the forensic audit report and probing the N300bn expenditure would earn the confidence of the public and prove that it would no longer be business as usual.
He insisted that the Niger Delta, that owns the NDDC, deserved to know the outcome of the audit initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari with the consent of major stakeholders and conducted with money that accrued to the commission.
He dismissed claims that publishing the identities of such persons would amount to blackmail and insisted that it would instead act as a deterent to others and strenghten the corporate governance policy of the commission.
Dumale said: “As much as we are happy that after a long time we now have a credible board on ground to pilot the affairs of the NDDC, it is important to also say that we cannot waste money and time investigating the activities of the commission without publishing the result of such expensive exercise.
“People want to see the report. They want to see people punished for their negative role in under-developing the region by collecting money for contracts they never executed.
“The minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Obong Umanah Okon Umanah had alleged that N300billion was frittered away by the past leadership of the NDDC. This allegation and the sum involved are too weighty to be ignored.
“We call on the Laurreta Onochie-led board to set up a panel to look into what such money was used for. This is the only way this board can curry support from the people”.
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