NDDC scandals: Buhari urged to ban IMC, inaugurate new board

President Muhammadu Buhari has been called upon to urgently ban the Interim Management Committee (IMC) set up to run the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and inaugurate a fresh management board that’s free from any external infringement.

Tribune Online reports that NDDC has been enmeshed with issues bordering on allegations of oath-taking, seduction and financial impropriety as unveiled at the recent public hearing of the Senate Adhoc Committee investigating corruption allegations.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and former Delta State governorship aspirant, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, in his appeal, urged President Buhari to equally separate the office of the NDDC from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

Onuesoke disclosed that the alleged unwholesome practices bedevilling the NDDC at a time when the nation is facing dire financial crisis, and the people of the Niger Delta are suffering untold hardship and underdevelopment, is both sad and callous.

“As it stands, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio and the IMC have lost the moral ground to supervise the forensic audit and run the affairs of the NDDC. What he has put in place to all intents and purposes is a sham exercise,” he averred.

He described the IMC as illegal and does not follow the Act that set it up, requesting that it must be dissolved.

“In fact, governments set up special audits every year for ministries’ departments and agencies but not one of them is an excuse to abrogate the law of these agencies as has been done to NDDC.

“In this instance, the IMC is at best an interloper, a contraption whose life at the Commission hangs by the thread of an audit it is micromanaging for the benefit of Akpabio and his men,” he alleged.

He requested that the NDDC Governing Board, which is provided for in line with the law, should be put in place immediately to run the affairs of the commission.

Onuesoke also insisted that infractions levelled against members of the IMC and NDDC must not be treated with kid gloves if the nation must make any progress.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE