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From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Chairman, Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Lauretta Onochie, has expressed dissatisfaction with the impact of the agency in the region, describing it as shameful.
This is as she has lamented how monies meant for the NDDC and by extension the development of Niger Delta was squandered in Abuja, Lagos, Dubai, London and other foreign countries, thereby impoverishing people of the region.
She stated this when she addressed management and staff of the commission at its headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, yesterday.
She said: ““This is an organisation, a commission that was commissioned specifically for the people of Niger Delta. It is an interventionist agency that is supposed to bring about prosperity; it is supposed to bring development in our region. This organisation was set up in the year 2000. And, if you go round the Niger Delta till date, there is little or nothing to show for it. NDDC has been a shame of the Niger Delta and a shame of our nation. President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been determined to turn things around.
“Over 20 years the money that was expended in this region, they found their ways to Abuja, to Lagos, to Dubai, London, USA, everywhere, except the Niger Delta. And when the government tries to correct things, they use some of the money to mobilise those same people they have put under them to protest against what the government is doing in their own favour. The time has come to say ‘stop, let it serve Niger Delta.”
Onochie assuerd workers of justice saying “I believe that there are some of us here who are where they shouldn’t be, there are some who are not where they should be. All the injustice we have seen in this Niger Delta, we will correct them.”
Newly inaugurated Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr Samuel Ogbuku assured every ethnic nationality in the region of a fair share from the new board.
He said there was no cause for fear by any ethnic nationality in the region over the spread of developmental projects.
Ogbuku, from Ayakoro community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, stated this at a reception held in his honour which had former President Goodluck Jonathan in attendance among other dignitaries.
“I can assure you that whatever is due anybody, whether your ethnic nationality is represented on the board or not, you will have your fair share. Nobody should be afraid whether you are represented or not. I don’t blame people when people get scared, maybe over the years and with previous boards, people have not been representing the interests of every ethnic nationality, but I can assure you that I have had meetings with members of the board and we are all committed in carrying along all the ethnic nationalities in the region to ensure nobody is left out. So nobody should panic, we are all one,” he said.
