UNDEDSS, Uranta Call For Probe Of All FG Agencies, Support NDDC Interim Magt. C’ttee

The United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) has called on the Federal Government not to limit its forensics audit to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) but to other agencies, ministries and parastatals of government.

The group said that if the federal government must audit the records books from 1999, then none of the Ministry, Department and Agency, parastatal of government should be exempted.

According to the group, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the National Ports Authority (NPA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) etc should be probe alongside the NDDC.

UNDEDSS said that the Niger Delta region would resist the attempt to continue to be treated as the whipping dogs of a Nigeria state that “everybody knows has been corrupt ab initio”.

UNDEDSS Secretary General, Tony Uranta, in a statement on Friday cautioned that it will not be in the developmental interest of the Niger Delta region to bog the interventionist agency down with a wholesale audit covering from its creation in 2001.

He queries that if the Federal Government actually set out to achieve anything good from the audit, “Why not commence with, say, an audit that covers the last two Boards’ tenures?

Uranta posited that the commission must not be bog down with controversy of only audits, such that the need to implant future best practices and expedite the development of the region, which corruption has gravely worked against in the past is eroded.

Declaring that “We cannot continue this way”, the UNDEDSS announced that the region would not accept what it terms “fundamental injustices by the Federal Government of Nigeria”.

It also frown at the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration present attempt to breach both the Land Use Act, via the proposed amendments to the National Inland Waterways Act; and the Act setting up the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

UNDEDSS argued that the resubmission of the list of nominees to the Board of the NDDC, show a breach of the NDDC Act and the Presidency’s brazen disregard for the Rule of Law.

UNDEDSS, a coalition of Niger Delta Civil Society condemned the attempt, by the Presidency, to force what its terms “unacceptable developments that threaten both the existence of the Niger Delta, and its peaceful coexistence with other Nigerians”.

“The Niger Delta peoples’ position regarding the insensitivity exhibited by the President in resubmitting to the Senate the same names as nominees for the NDDC Board is that this dismissal of the need to obey the law or hearken to our legitimate demands is highly insulting to the region”.

UNDEDSS states that the NDDC Act, thus the Rule of Law, stipulates that the positions of NDDC Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer/MD must be rotated around the region’s petroleum production states according to the alphabetical order of the states’ names.

“Providentially, according to the alphabetical order of the states’ names, and going by the law and the tradition to date, the next Chairman of the Board and Managing Director must come from Delta State, following the established system of rotation.

To critics who may wonder if Delta State would not be wrongly favoured, Mr. Uranta, the Executive Secretary of UNDEDSS, explained that, “there is nothing in the NDDC Act stipulating that both Chairman and CEO cannot come from any one state.

He added, “if the Act is not amended going forward, this phenomenon, of both Chairman and MD being from same state, will play out again in 2079 for Akwa Ibom, 2107 for Rivers, and 2119 for Bayelsa.”

“We refuse to continue this way. Nigeria is a federal country. If the Rule of Law is threatened by the Government itself, can anybody fault the rise of a state of anarchy, or fault people wondering what value is the country to any citizen or federating unit?”, Uranta queries.

Subsequently, UNDEDSS declared that until the right thing is done it would continue to show support for the Interim Management Team put in place by the Federal Government to oversee the affairs of the NDDC, and also to carry out an audit of the commission.

Meanwhile the group has rejected “The proposed amendment to the NIWA Act which it said is ‘RUGA’ by other methods.

UNDEDSS Scribe averred that “For there to be a peacefully united Nigeria, the NIWA Act Amendment Bill must be withdrawn forthwith, and the Federal Government must stop trying to behave as if Nigeria is a feudal or unitary entity, or that this is North Korea!”