Financial Recklessness: IPF Demands Urgent NDDC Probe, Ogbuku, Others to Account
By Femi Olamide
The apex Ijaw media council, the Ijaw Publishers' Forum (IPF) in Nigeria, has written to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to institute a probe into the financial recklessness of the managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the entire board, stating that NDDC had been turned into an ATM for a few.
This was contained in a statement signed by the spokesman of the Ijaw Publishers Forum, Comrade Ezekiel Kagbala, copies of which were made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State, on Monday.
The media council further called on prominent Niger Delta leaders to prevail on the Ogbuku led NDDC management to give stewardship of the trillions accrued to the commission over the period of his administration.
The Ijaw apex media organization said the probe had become imperative considering the non-impactful programs the commission is rerunning to siphon money belonging to the people of Niger Delta to their individual pockets.
IPF feels that Ogbuku is not interested in lifting the Niger Delta region out of poverty and underdevelopment, but is very interested in littering the region with abandoned projects and substandard programs.
The forum said despite the trillions accrued to the NDDC for the period of Ogbuku-led administration, there was no rural electricity, drinkable water, good roads, bridges to connect rural communities to urban cities, and an adequate health care centre among Niger Delta rural and riverine communities.
The forum also lamented that there was no riverine community being connected to the national grid; rather, Ogbuku keeps installing low-cost street solar lights that have no value in the lives of the people selectively.
IPF insisted that NDDC programs such as Project Hope, NDDC Youth Internship Scheme, Niger Delta Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Trade, Mines, and Agriculture (NDCCITMA) should be probed, adding that they were not impactful but a medium of syphoning the Commission's Treasury.
The media council further added that Ogbuku was not working for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's interest in winning the Niger Delta's support, but was only interested in becoming the next governor of Bayelsa State.
The Ijaw Publishers said Ogbuku was doing selective empowerment of boys who were loyal to him, political leaders he feels will support him for his political ambition.
According to them, "Tinubu's re-election bid would suffer a terrible setback if Ogbuku-led NDDC management was not called to order, adding that many Niger Delta youth and communities were already angry at Tinubu for imposing Ogbuku on the throat of the commission and its people".
