Pan Niger Delta advocacy group, Niger Delta Elders Forum has taken a swipe at Senator Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Niger Delta Affairs for what it described as Enang’s “diversionary statement” that government will release a white paper on the report of the forensic audit of NDDC.
According to Tonye Ogbogbula, national president of the forum, “following an established pattern by officials of this government to flip-flop, contradict themselves, and renege on promises with regard to the NDDC forensic audit and inauguration of a substantive board, it is clear that there is a deliberate red-herring apparently designed to enable certain officials in this government to continue with the illegality of administering NDDC with interim management/sole administrator contraptions in breach of the NDDC Establishment Act.”
In a report published on January 3, 2022 by an online platform, Ita Enang was quoted as having said on a national TV that “a white paper on the forensic audit report will show the recommendations which are accepted or rejected by the Federal Government.”
NDEF reminded the Federal Government that as much as it desires to issue a white paper on the forensic audit report, it should in no way stall the two most salient issues that the authentic stakeholders of the Niger Delta have consistently demanded and which President Buhari had committed to: “(1) to make public the entire report of the forensic audit, which he received on September 2, 2021; and (2) to end the illegal interim management/sole administratorship contraption at the NDDC and inaugurate the board of the commission in compliance with the NDDC Act, and thereby ensure proper corporate governance, accountability, checks and balances, and equitable representation of the nine constituent states in administering the commission.”
According to Ogbogbula, Buhari’s silence on his commitment to make public the entire report of the forensic audit, and also inaugurate the NDDC board in accordance with the law, and in fulfilment of his own promise of June 24, 2021, is of “grave concern to Niger Deltans as it indicates a continued disregard by this government for the region as well as unwillingness to submit to transparency in administering NDDC and on the issue of making the forensic audit report public for all Nigerians to see.”
Niger Delta Elders Forum (NDEF) stated that it considers it as “utter disregard on the entire region that after nearly five months of Buhari’s receipt of the forensic audit report from the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Ita Enang is talking of white paper release without a definite date, and even contradicting Buhari who promised Nigerians on June 24, 2021 that the NDDC board will be inaugurated upon receipt of the forensic audit report, which he received on September 2, 2021.”
The Niger Delta elders reminded the Federal Government that on November 15, 2021, while receiving the report of a judicial panel set up to investigate the shooting of unarmed protesters by Nigeria soldiers and police at the Lekki Toll Gate on the evening of October 20, 2020, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the state will release a white paper on November 30, 2021, which promise he dutifully fulfilled.
But according to NDEF, the reverse has been the case with the Federal Government, which has “reneged on the promise it has made on the NDDC board inauguration, and forensic audit which it commenced since October 2019, fuelling the belief across the entire region that the forensic audit was a mere subterfuge to perpetrate the ongoing illegality of administering the commission with interim management/sole administrator contraptions in breach of the law setting up NDDC, the NDDC Establishment Act of 2000.”
Ogbogbula stated that NDEF is therefore not surprised that Professor Benjamin Okaba, President of Ijaw National Congress (INC) and President-General of Conference of Presidents-General of Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities (CPGNDEN) on January 2, 2022 flayed Buhari for the delay in making public the entirety of the NDDC forensic audit report, for all Nigerians to see and the unfulfilled promise, since 2019 to bring to justice those who the Federal Government have been accusing of allegedly fleecing the commission.
The INC president reiterated that “what we want is the NDDC substantive board to be inaugurated, that is the only thing that will excite us, not these promises. He does not need the permission of Nigerians to prosecute anybody, we want to see action.”
NDEF stated that some of the many failed promises on the NDDC forensic audit include Senator Akpabio’s “commitment on October 29, 2019 at the swearing in of the first Interim Management Committee (IMC) then headed by Ms. Joi Nunieh, where Akpabio assured that the IMC will only stay in office for six months to supervise the forensic audit to be completed in March 2020, after which the Board will be inaugurated, in compliance with the law to ensure proper corporate governance, checks and balances, and probity in the management of the commission.” The group noted with regret that by the time the expected deadline of March 2020 for the submission of the audit report was near, Akpabio sacked the first IMC Acting Managing Director Ms Joi Nunieh and appointed a new Acting Managing Director, Prof Pondei and extended the stay of this IMC to December 2020, by which time he said the forensic audit will be concluded. NDEF further observed that “just when that was drawing near, he sacked the Interim Management Committee and appointed his personal aide, Mr Effiong Okon Akwa, as Interim Sole Administrator with a promised forensic audit completion date of March 2021.”
Further cataloguing the failed promises, NDEF stated that the Niger Delta Minister, Chief Godswill Akpabio, in January 2021 stated that the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission would be concluded and the report submitted before April 2021. Then again, according to the group, in April and June 2021 at the Ibom Icon Hotels and Golf Resort in Uyo, and while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, respectively, Senator Godswill Akpabio stated that the “final report of forensic audit of NDDC will be ready by the end of July, which never happened until September 2, when it was submitted to Buhari.”
According to Ogbogbula of NDEF, “it is becoming more apparent, with the latest deception of Enang, that officials of this Federal Government have turned the whole forensic audit report into a circus where the process is now not only being micromanaged, but is fraught with inconsistencies and contradictions. This government has used the excuse of the forensic audit to unnecessarily delay the Governing Board from being put in place in compliance with the NDDC establishment Act and also ensure fair and equitable representation of the nine constituent states. Now, this government conveniently oscillates on its position on the forensic audit report submitted to Buhari since September 2, 2021 under spurious excuses to justify running NDDC like their personal fiefdom.”
NDEF restated its position that “whereas the North East Development Commission (NEDC) has been allowed to function with its duly constituted Board in place in line with its NEDC Act, thereby ensuring proper corporate governance, accountability, checks and balances and fair representation of its constituent states, the NDDC on the other hand has been run arbitrarily in the last two years by interim committees/sole administrator in breach of the NDDC Act.”
NDEF, therefore, summarized the demand of the Niger Delta region as follows: “ending the interim management/sole administratorship at the NDDC; inauguration of the NDDC Governing Board in line with the NDDC Act to represent the nine constituent states; Publication of the Forensic Audit report for all Nigerians to see because the report cannot be hidden because it is supposed to be a public document; and prosecution of any indicted persons.”