The state chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Friday, October 31, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio.
The party chieftains demand came after the constitution of an interim management committee for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The Herald gathered that Akpabio, who is the minister of Niger Delta affairs, provoked the party’s chairmen when he set up new committee for the NDDC despite the appointment of the substantive board by the president.
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In a statement signed by their chairman and secretary, Ali Bukar Dolari and Ben Nwoye, respectively, they described Akpabio as a clog in the wheel of progress of the Buhari-led administration.
According to them, the minister has a vested interest to annex the NDDC as a unit of the Niger Delta ministry where he is the minister.
They said: “We query the rationale behind Akpabio’s hastened moves to impose an illegal interim management committee in breach of the NDDC act.
“What does Akpabio intend to achieve by hurriedly appointing the committee whereas, Akpabio is aware of President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of a substantive board who are currently undergoing confirmation screening by the Senate?
“We view a situation where a minister exhibits crass insubordination to the office and person of the President, who appointed him as a minister, as a national embarrassment.”
The Herald reported that Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta Affairs, said the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is infected with corrupt people.
Akpabio made this statement sequel to the President’s directive for a forensic audit to be carried out on the operations of the NDDC from 2001 to 2019.
According to him, “We have also had a lot of political interference, people have not allowed NDDC to work as it ought to, people coming with ideas not to move the region forward but to move their pockets forward. It has always been so,” he said.
“We currently have about 12,000 abandoned projects across the nine states of the Niger Delta. If those things were completed, you can imagine that the area would have been turned into an Eldorado.
“There is no way NDDC road can last (for) even two years. I think people were treating the place as an ATM, where you just walk in there to go and pluck money and go away, I don’t think they were looking at it as an interventionist agency.
“Even the idea of giving out a job to somebody who does not have the requisite skills is corruption on its own. The idea of bloating the contract is also corruption. Even collecting money and abandoning the site is also corruption.
Akpabio further said that the President was right in his decision for calling for a forensic audit on the commission;
He said: “We have also had a lot of political interference, people have not allowed NDDC to work as it ought to, people coming with ideas not to move the region forward but to move their pockets forward. It has always been so.”