Party chieftain, Dr. Emeka Kalu has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to sack Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa as the sole administrator to Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

Emeka Kalu said Mr. Effiong Okon Akwa will pocket and share the N453.2 billion of the NDDC budget with the Minister and former governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio.

It would be recalled that the National Assembly on Monday approved and passed into law N453.2 billion 2020 NDDC budget

Effiong Okon Akwa

The Peoples Democratic Party Coalition National Coordinator and the South East Director of Reset Nigeria Group, Emeka Kalu said President Muhammadu Buhari and the two leaders of the National Assembly, Senator Ahmad Lawan and Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila to as a matter of national interest put a stop to the plan of Senator Godswill Akpabio to turn the agency to a private investment by appointing his brother Sole Administrator for the NDDC.

Adding that Godswill Akpabio did so to enable him and his group divert the budget of N453.2 billion for personal use.

Godswill Akpabio questioned earlier in the year at the National Assembly over management of funds in NDDC

In a statement personally signed and made available to the newsmen yesterday, Emeka Kalu threatened that if the intended rape on the collective future of NDDC members states, which he belong to, is allowed to proceed with impunity, the concerned citizens of the region will have no option than to embark on heavy regional protests and related civil disobedience to register their displeasure of the plan to rob their fortune in broad daylight by connivance of few cabals in the region.

He insisted that appointment of Sole Administrator for NDDC is tantamount to creating highway traffic to further loot, rape, plunder and mismanage what is left of the ministry under Godswill Akpabio.

Emeka Kalu

“The government of President Buhari has tounted much about fighting corruption, this particular corruption must be fought intoto to avoid further breakdown of peace in the already heated and fragile polity.

“The National Assembly should as a matter of urgency swear in a substantive caretaker committee that will man the agency while Akpabio continue with his forensic audit of the Agency.

“We totally reject the attempt by Akpabio and his co travelers to pocket NDDC by appointing his brother as Sole Administrator who will completely hand over the NDDC budget to Akpabio and his collaborators to share while the region remains in abject poverty, thereby betraying the purpose for which NDDC was set up

Former President Goodluck Jonathan in a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday at State House, Abuja PHOTO: ASO ROCK

“It is utter illegality to imagine the decision by Mr. President to appoint Effiong Okon Akwa as Sole Administrator to ‘oversee the ongoing forensic audit of the Commission to its completion’.

“This is alien, illegal, void and seriously offends the fine provisions of Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the NDDC (Establishment) Act, 2000.

“It is also a typical of a man presiding over his case, if Akpabio is allowed to use his brother to oversee audit of money he is accused of embezzling, and by so doing, Mr President will be aiding and abating crime, fraud, embezzlement and encouraging corruption in the high places, unless the presidency gained from the proceeds of the undoing drama in NDDC under Akpabio.

Senate President, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan

“The fact remains that NDDC is a creation of law and cannot be operated based on the whims and caprices of President Muhammadu Buhari or any other person for that matter.

“We therefore demand that your good offices should not for any reason authorize the spending of the approved N453.2 billion
being 2020 Budget for NDDC or any part thereof by Effiong Okon Akwa for purposes of running the affairs of the Commission as this will also make the Senate President and Speaker of House of Representatives accomplices to the well-orchestrated crime against a region that has already been bedeviled by poverty, underdevelopment and neglect from the leadership of this nation.

President Muhammadu Buhari helps self during meeting with members of the Presidential Taskforce on Covid19 in State House, Abuja yesterday PHOTO: ASO ROCK

“Let me conclude by saying that if this illegality is allowed to sail through, it means that NDDC is just a window dressing where the President appoint a man from the NDDC region as figure head for the purpose of awarding money that will be retrieved for sharing among them and not actually an Agency for development of Niger Delta Region.

“I stand to be proved wrong by the President and NASS”, said Kalu.