By Akinwale Kasali
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has sensationally revealed that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is deep into politics.
Lending his voice on the recent revelations of corruption in the NDDC, Governor Wike said the Corrupt Practices were not news to him.
Proof: He alleges that the Commission invested over N10 billion to fight against his second tenure.
Wike: “They have, unfortunately, turned it to a different thing. NDDC is a cash cow for politicians. In my own election, NDDC brought N10 billion cash to fight against me”.
Wike made this revelation in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.
He added that the NDDC has since lost focus from the initial mission for which it was established for, and has become a money making machine for some corrupt politicians.
“I have said before, and it is very clear, my concern is everybody knows that NDDC was set up for the development of the region,” he said.
His comments followed the ongoing probe by the National Assembly into the alleged fraud running into billions of Naira said to have been perpetrated by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC between February and May 2020.
He also accused the Commission of embarking on projects in Rivers without the consent of the state government.
“You cannot go to a state and begin to carry out projects without the permission of the state government, you don’t know what their plans are. You can’t come into my state to disturb my development plan, you must let me know,” Wike said.
According to him, technocrats, and not politicians, should be placed in charge of the Commission to enable it function effectively to change the narrative of what is playing out at the moment.
While explaining the role of Governors in the South-South, he said, “Under the NDDC Act, there should be a Governing Board made up of the governors.”
“Since 2015 we have been asking for that Board, but it was only last year that the President was able to constitute a governing board. But that is just theory.”
Between February and May, investigations were launched by lawmakers to probe the alleged fraud in the NDDC while President Muhammadu Buhari also ordered that a forensic audit be carried out on the Commission.
Since then, it has been one scandal or the other.
