ABUJA – An anti-corruption crusade group, National Action Group Against Corruption (NAGAC), has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently stop the fraudulent desilting contracts often awarded by some officials of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and some stakeholders in the oil-rich region.
It also called on the President to urgently stop further payments for already awarded desilting contracts by the Commission.
NAGAC alleged that between 2019 and 2022, over N500billion has so far been siphoned by fraudulent NDDC officials and some of the region’s stakeholders from the Commission under the guise of executing “fictitious Desilting Contracts.”
The group, in the petition jointly signed by its President, Dr Ibrahim Maigari and General Secretary, Pastor Folarin Adefemi, respectively, and titled, “National Action Group Against Corruption (NAGAC) Urges Security Agencies To Stop The Exploitation Of Fraudulent Desilting Contracts By Some NDDC Officials And Stakeholders Of The Region To Siphon Funds Meant For The Region’s Development,” drew President Buhari’s attention to alleged “perennial and persistent fraudulent activities of some NDDC officials in cahoots with some Niger Delta stakeholders to siphon the Commission’s funds through phoney Desilting Contracts” and the urgent need to use anti-corruption and security agencies to stop the menace at the Commission.
It noted that such “monumental frauds being perpetrated by some NDDC officials and so-called stakeholders were the reasons for the renewed agitations, perennial restiveness, wanton violence and needless destruction as well as the general insecurity that have almost become the permanent features of the oil-rich Niger Delta region.”
NAGAC, which expressed dismay at the “gargantuan magnitude of fraud being perpetrated for years now with the Desilting Contracts being awarded by the NDDC virtually every year,” however advised the President to stop further awards of such contracts while further payments for those already awarded should be stopped immediately.
It stated that the awards of such fraudulent desilting contracts became rampant during the tenure of the immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
NAGAC also accused Akpabio of colluding with a former NDDC acting Managing Director and another retired Director “to process backdated Desilting Contract papers” while also allegedly using close associates of his to move the funds from the Commission’s purse.
The group, therefore, urged President Buhari to direct the various anti-graft and security agencies to intensify investigations into the Desilting Contracts fraud going on at the NDDC and clamp down on the perpetrators with a view to putting an end to the menace at the Commission.
The petition partly read, “The security agencies must act now against the fat cats at the NDDC, Your Excellency, because this is the only way the much-expected but elusive meaningful development can get to the people in the Niger Delta.
“Mr President, sir, NAGAC wants to advise that there should be no cover-up on the ongoing investigation, which has reached an advanced stage. Your administration’s anti-corruption stance is at stake here, sir.
“The outcome of the ongoing investigation, Your Excellency, NAGAC also wants to advise, should not be allowed to be tampered with by anyone, no matter how highly placed they’re in government and the larger society.
“NAGAC will further advise Your Excellency that all stolen NDDC funds should be fully recovered and all perpetrators of such a crime, including those who served as their conduit for siphoning the Commission’s funds, prosecuted and punished appropriately.”
The petition was also copied the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; National Security Adviser, Major General Mohammed Monguno; Inspector General of Police, Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS); Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Boss Mustapha; Minister of Niger Delta, Chief Umana Okon Umanah; Chairperson, NDDC, Mrs Loretta Onochie; Managing Director, NDDC; Chairman, Senate Committee on NDDC and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on NDDC.
