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South East South South Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN) has written to President Muhammedu Buhari, through the Minister of Niger Delta, Mr. Godswill Akpabio, demanding that the outcome of the forensic audit report on the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) must not slide into “voice mail” by undue bureaucratic red tape or shot down by the “notorious artillery of corruption fighting back.”
The group, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Collins Ugwu and President, Hannibal Uwaifo said it understood the steps taken by government to set up the audit as a corrective duty because it resonates with its advocacy for accountable governance in the socio-economic development of the Niger Delta.
“Reasonably, we expected that the submitted report will quickly trigger a sequence of actions to preserve such a special development vehicle like the NDDC, from ever being so criminally abducted by rogue elements, for such aggravated rape and plunder visited on it.
“SESSPN demands that the corruption banditry on this agency’s over N6 trillion appropriations and releases, in nearly two decades of sustained larceny, should be attended to swiftly, to punish the culprits unsparingly as deterrence, because the suppressed rage of the Niger Delta victims of this grand abuses look towards exemplary justice as basic atonement.
“We advise with caution that nothing will be more salutary, than making sure, the report is matched with an holistic White Paper for a transparent implementation without compromise. Those who took delight in shredding the dreams of NDDC, and made it a tunnel of graft rather, should get the full whip of the law, and if found guilty, receive the scorn of jail sentences appropriate to the misery they planted, and the ruthless deprivations they sowed.
“We, therefore, make haste to call on the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who received that report with a presidential directive to do what is necessary to rise to that mandate expeditiously.
“We remind him too that he promised to do justice to it with despatch publicly, as the de facto head of the administration’s anti corruption drive. The citizens of Niger Delta are still waiting, and SESSPN, is very determined to see that promise kept in good conscience.
“We believe strongly that implementing the affirmative mandates of the Forensic Audit will re-echo not only the avowed anti corruption crusade of the President, but actualise the hopes raised by it, as justification for the resources this administration through the supervising Minister of NDDC has put into the entire exercise.”
The group restated its call that the constitutional requirement to have a duly constituted board for the NDDC that would drive its integrity and corporate governance of the agency, be speedily addressed, concluded and inaugurated.
