By Akinwale Kasali
The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, Prof Itse Sagay, has taken a swipe at the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, labelling the Commission as rotten.
This stems from the Corruption sleaze and monumental fraud being probed by the National Assembly.
Prof. Sagay in a recent interview with a National daily said that the NDDC is a rotten Commission, that has decayed as a result of corrupt practices.
Prof Sagay stressed that, “I won’t say from the beginning, as the first three or four years appeared to have been okay, but since then, it has been a rotten edifice, which people who have aspirations to become wealthy overnight have hung their claims.
“People from all over the country, including Niger Delta people themselves don’t give a hoot for the purpose of which NDDC was established, which is to develop the Niger Delta area and bring them out of misery, to provide them with modernity of life, to compensate them for what they are contributing to the country so that they have a good standard of living; they don’t care about that.
“These people from the beginning have gone there to share whatever it is that is available for the NDDC and they have a few projects here and there, pretending that something is being done when in fact the bulk of the resources is being shared by individuals at the expense of people of Niger Delta.
“The whole edifice is rotten, it is such a terrible shame, it shows very low standard of humanity among us”.
The Professor of Law said that as Chairman of PACAC, he had, on behalf of the committee, stated that the interim committee should be dissolved and that the Minister of Niger Delta should be made to resign or should be removed with immediate effect, and a fresh task should be given.
He added that he also recommended that whatever group that is appointed, by the National Assembly, there should be a monitoring committee that will monitor them and monitor every contract that is awarded; not only monitor in terms of the project, the cost of the project, they must monitor the progress of the project and make sure that the project is being completed at a certain pace agreed upon at all times.
Prof Sagay stressed that if the above recommendation is not followed to the letter, an alarm should be raised.
“The NDDCÂ needs an extreme monitoring and new group of people who will handle the job of managing the Commission the right way, and not Corrupt individuals that are bent on embezzling and enriching themselves as against the purpose of the establishment of the Commission”.
