By Seyi Odewale
The paramount ruler of the Great Idjerhe Kingdom of Delta State, King Obukowho Monday. A. Whiskey, yesterday, asked the immediate Niger Delta Affairs minister, Godswill Akpabio to account for about N700 billion Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC) money in his care as the minister overseeing the corporation.

In a press statement in Benin City, the Edo State capital, the Idjerhe traditional ruler called on the Federal Government and the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, to account for over N700 billion-naira allocation to NDDC in the last three years.

“Having voluntarily resigned as Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs, our beloved son, Obong Godswill Obot Akpabio should come out clean to explain to fellow Niger Deltans the whereabouts of the three years running budgetary allocations of the NDDC which inside sources claimed were more than N700 billion.

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“The Federal Government and former Minister Akpabio who held the region perpetually captive and denied her of her developmental agenda because of an inglorious forensic audit that never brought out anything should now explain to our people of our collective regional wealth.

“The father of the nation, Mr. President must have seen now that those he entrusted with the developmental agenda of the oil and gas bearing communities of Nigeria had their own nefarious intentions to swindle and cause more havoc and deny the people their collective dreams of development.
“It is instructive to note, Mr. President, that three options are still available to the federal government of Nigeria. The first being the immediate inauguration of the screened and confirmed Board of the NDDC under the Chairmanship of Dr. Pius Egberavwe Odubu and MDship of Olorogun Bernard Okumagba.

“Secondly, immediate dissolution of the illegally constituted Sole Administrator that is alien to the NDDC Act 2000, and thirdly, every of the allocation to the NDDC from 2019 to 2022 except for those used for staff salaries and sundry expenses, every other money of the over N700 billion be recovered from whoever were part of the Macabre dance of shame in the past four years.

“I have the privilege of sitting with you, Mr. President one on one on December 14, 2018, and for over three hours and I recalled with nostalgia how deeply concerned you spoke about the underdevelopment in the Niger Delta. And I know you as a man of due diligence who will not condone what had just happened to the regional interventionist agency, the NDDC whose resources were plundered, looted, and were out rightly misappropriated by those you saddled with such responsibility,” the statement added.

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While bemoaning the pitiable activities at the commission, he called for an urgent inauguration of the already screened/confirmed board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), adding that the step will try to resuscitate and rekindle hope of the people whose regional resources were criminally plundered by the leadership of Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.

The traditional ruler stressed that the inauguration of the already screened and confirmed board will rekindle hope and restore the federal government’s integrity before Nigerians and the international community.

He also took a swipe at Akpabio’s ambition of becoming president saying: “Finally, in the face of the atrocities that Akpabio has committed, it will be a great affront and insult on the people of the Niger Delta for him to contest for President without first rendering a clean account of his tenure as minister of the Niger Delta Affairs.”