Niger Delta leaders, youths laud Buhari over forensic audit of NDDC

IYC Urges Same Treatment For Amnesty Office

President Muhammadu Buhari’s move to audit the accounts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has got the back of prominent leaders and youths of the Niger Delta.

The stakeholders urged Buhari to let the new board, awaiting confirmation by the Senate, to oversee the audit.Chief Atunyota Ejughemre, a prominent leader from Delta State, alleged deep-seated rot in the commission.

“Since the inception of NDDC, various managements have not done well and have unwittingly frittered monies allocated to the commission by the Federal Government. The funds that have been released have been badly mismanaged.

“It is proper and prudent to order a forensic audit. I make bold to say that the place looks like a political beehive to advance the ambition of most of the people who go there. I believe the new board can turn a new leaf for NDDC and it will not be business as usual,” he said.

Similarly, president of Niger Delta Peoples Federation (NDPF), Mr. Osaro Iyamu, preferred the newly-appointed board to supervise the forensic audit as directed by the president.

“The interim board should not be allowed to supervise the audit because they are involved in the corruption bedeviling the NDDC,” he added
Speaking for the Oro Youth Movement (OYM) in Akwa Ibom, Etifit Nkereuwem expressed full support for Buhari’s decision and urged confirmation of the new board ahead of the audit, so the new board will see it through.

Meanwhile, commending Buhari for the audit, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) called on the president to extend the gesture to the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).In a statement signed in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, yesterday, the Secretary General, Alfred Kemepado, believes that the audit and its subsequent sincere report will expose the alleged rot in NDDC. 

The IYC stated that the commission and the Amnesty programme had been more of a problem than the solution they were set up to be. It called on the president to create sufficient time to check the audit committee, to ensure a good job.Kemepado requested the president to also look into the over-politicisation of the commission.