Joint Press Statement of the Conscience of the Niger Delta (CND) and the Center for Energy Policy Research and Development (CEPRD).



Niger Delta Grouos Demand for the Sack of Dr Aliyu Bello Gusau, Executive Secretary PTDF Over Incompetence, Nepotism and Ethnic Bigotry.



We the members of the Conscience of the Niger Delta and the Center for Energy Policy Research and Development (CEPRD) demands the immediate sack of the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF), Dr Aliyu Belo Gusau over his overt acts of Nepotism and ethnic bigotry exhibit against the people of the Niger Delta.

In an earlier petition petition to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and signed by the convener of the group Comrade EJoint Press Statement of the Conscience of the Niger Delta (CND) and the Center for Energy Policy Research and Development (CEPRD).bipade Jackson, Dr Aliyu was accused of having a one point agenda since he assumed office as the Executive Secretary of the body, which is bigotry and nepotism against the people of the Niger Delta in favour of Northern interests.

Dr Aliyu Gussu personally presides over contract and Scholarship awards by prioritizing and citing major projects and scholarships of the PTDF in the North with northern contractors while the Niger Delta gets meager projects. To worsen the situation, the group alleged that in contract execution, Dr Gusau prioritizes payment to contracts located in the north while projects in the Niger Delta are starved of funding, the reason why PTDF projects in the area are mostly incomplete and abandoned while those in the north are speedily completed.


It is condemnable that Dr Gusau, at the twilight of the Buhari administration hurriedly connived with some northern interests and got National Executive Council approval to cite the Petroleum Training Institute in Kaduna with no drop of oil, which is being speedily executed while projects like the Skills Acquisition Center awarded over 15 years ago in Port Harcourt is abandoned with contractors handling the projects being starved of funds even after completing mile stones.

It is indeed a great wonder to us why an unqualified man from Zamfara state with no drop of oil and who staff of the agency describe as a bully and impervious to advice, will head PTDF, while there are many qualified and competent persons from the Niger Delta where the hydrocarbon is situated who can handle such portfolio effectively and ensure fairness and equity.

Infirmation available to us indicate that the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund, Dr Bello Aliyu Gusau, has in the past been accused of awarding fraudulent contracts without recourse to procedure and due process. He has also been accused of nepotism, marginalisation and diversion of agency funds into private pockets.

Since the appointment of Gusau in 2016, it had been a regime of indiscriminate awards of contracts to persons that either did not bid for contracts that the PTDF did not advertise. Gusau has abused all known procurement regulations in the agency.

Dr Gusau has turned the PTDF to an extension of his state where only his kinsmen are seen clutching files and folders from the procurement department. There are also instances where the Dr. Gusau's kinsmen recommend who gets what from the PTDF. It is such an eyesore as it stands. If urgent steps are not taken, the PTDF might end up in a not too pleasant manner considering the strategic importance of its operations in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary has formed the habit of bragging about his untouchable status. He usually brags about his connection in the corridors of power and how he also has unhindered access to the President. It is quite sad because Dr. Gusau has turned tyrant in the administration of the PTDF.

We have it on record that the Executive Secretary has been using resources from the PTDF to finance political activities in his home state. Dr. Gusau has turned to a political cash-cow for politicians from his state. From all indications, it seems the Dr Gusau has political ambition. This is largely responsible for how he has turned the PTDF into an extension of his state. He has also formed the habit of awarding scholarships to select people, mostly from his state.

With the way things are going at the PTDF, Nigeria might soon experience an embarrassment from foreign institutions where Nigerian students are on scholarship due to non-payment of tuition for

We are on the verge of experiencing an embarrassment of unimaginable proportion. You won't believe that the PTDF has not met her obligations with foreign tertiary institutions where you have our students. The ES has diverted monies meant for tuition payment as it stands.

Since the Dr. Gusau was reappointed, the PTDF has defaulted severally on these payments, not because of lack of funds, but rather the mismanagement of resources by the Executive Secretary and his cronies. We are afraid that things are not going to change anytime soon with the attitude of the Executive Secretary with regards to the resources of the organization.

Recruitment into the agency had been contracted to a firm owned by some cronies of Dr. Gusau. The Executive Secretary has succeeded in rubbishing whatever structure left in the organisation. Dr Gusau, runs the PTDF as a private company where he decides who gets what and when.

It is most unfortunate that a man could be so brazen in recklessness. He does whatever he wants with the finances of the organisation. He dishes out overinflated contracts to only his kinsmen and many other anomalies that defeat common sense.

Dr Bello Gusau is a monumental embarrassment. The general public should not be deceived by his media grandstanding. We gathered that he has recently engaged the services of a public relations firm to launder his image in the media, all in a bid to cover up for his gross abuse office.

We demand that Dr. Gusau should be sacked from office because his atrocities are innumerable, as well as despicable.


We therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a man who loves equity and fairness to immediately sack Dr Aliyu Belo Gussu for being incompetent and promoting ethnicity as he has no business heading the PTDF.

We equally make bold to state here that we will not hesitate to mobilize a one million man march, including shutting down oil facilities in the region until Justice is done.


Signed
Ebipade Jackson
Converner, Conscience of the Niger Delta

Prince Joshua Ovoh.
Coordinator, Center for Energy Policy Research and Development.