From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), the umbrella body of Ijaw youths from the nine states of the Niger Delta, has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe allegations of illegal payments of N20billion to ghost contractors in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Its national spokesman, Mr Ebilade Ekerefe, stated this at a press conference in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, lamenting that genuine contractors that have finished projects awarded by the commission were yet to be paid.
“President Muhammadu Buhari should rise up to this occasion and clear the corruption toga tied around his administration due to the numerous unresolved high profile fraud cases allegedly perpetuated by ministers under his administration. If the President, Muhammadu Buhari and those in the presidency could not investigate the allegation brought forward by the council, it means they are all involved in the on-going fraud in the NDDC.
“We have already lost confidence in the ability of the present administration to keep to its words on issues of crime and criminality. Months after the submission of the audit report, the Buhari administration has gone mute over its implementation.
“In the years of the present administration, the Niger Delta region has been heavily dealt with by President Buhari for no just reason. The road projects including the moribund East/West road have remained a death trap. The youths empowerment programme remained poor. Projects celebrated and purportedly deployed to the region are either dead or moribund. We are no longer worried that the political appointees from the region were deployed against their people and they are enjoying it. But let us warn, payback time is coming soon.”