₦airaland Forum

Dyke15:
Oga did u do wat she accused of or not* Attack d message nd not d messanger*

Dyke15:
Oga did u do wat she accused of or not* Attack d message nd not d messanger*

ruggedtimi:
why bring ijaw in this matter now....

Nukilia:
Let the woman spit fire, I still believe Akpabio will deliver for the Niger Delta.

ruggedtimi:
i was thinking my eyes get problem

Nukilia:
Looking at the landmark projects Akpabio did in Akwa Ibom, I think he would do something good for the NDDC. The NDDC I know is a cesspool of corruption, and it has never been a blessing to the people of the Niger Delta...

donbachi:
They are talking about now,and how he(akpabio) is looting nddc...he is there talking about her past...as if they are your witnesses.

Doubledaniel:
Does this explains the billions he looted even as Akwa Ibom governor. Being a looter, always a looter!

ThatFairGuy1:
Is that how he'll defend the allegations? Thief
One of the PDP thieves that wanted succour in APC.

Niaja4real:
Una ikot mkpo
U dis thief again
Leave the private life and face your corruption allegations
Ebua ikot

UbongCR7:
That wasn't necessary.

On the part he said that former NDDC directors went there just to accumulate money for Election, I can only laugh.
Akpabio and Apc are beneficiaries to that - the Apc candidate of the last Election in Akpabio's state Mr. Nsima Ekere used nddc funds for his elections and still failed woefully.
This shows that Akpabio is basically implicating himself.

Akpabio: Corruption, Lack of Patriotism Crippled NDDC for 19 Years
• Says ongoing forensic audit will be ready December
• Explains dismissal of Joy Nunieh, NDDC’s former MD

The Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio yesterday said endemic corruption, lack of patriotism and the entrenched culture of patronage had crippled the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from delivering its mandate to the people of the region in the last 19 years of its operations.

Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, also said all these challenges informed the decision of the federal government to commission forensic audit into NDDC’s operations between 2001 and 2019, noting that the report of the forensic audit would be ready before the end of the year.

He made these clarifications on Arise News, a sister TV arm of THISDAY Newspapers Group yesterday, absolving himself of corruption allegations made against by the NDDC’s former Managing Director, Ms. Joy Nunieh.

Nunieh had accused the minister of serial corrupt practices. She had alleged that during her brief tenure at the commission, Mr Akpabio repeatedly pressured her to take “an oath of secrecy” that was meant to keep her from exposing fraud at the commission.

Nunieh, who was relieved of her appointment after confrontation with the minister, said: “For instance, he told me to raise a memo to fraudulently award emergency contracts for flood victims in the Niger Delta. I would have been jailed if I had succumbed to Akpabio’s ‘oath of secrecy.”

Defending his decision to reposition the interventionary agency on Arise News yesterday, the minister alleged that the NDDC had failed to deliver to the people of the region almost two decades after its operation.

For 19 years, the minister alleged that nothing “can be seen on ground in the NDDC because of corruption and because people see it as a place for patronage. For 19 years, NDDC could not even buy a house they could use as an office.”

Asked to explain the factors responsible for the failure of the NDDC, Akpabio claimed that the commission “had been a place for election matters before he assumed office. If you want to contest elections, all you need is to get into the NDDC; make money there and contest elections.

“Unfortunately, so many that made the money never won elections. They did not win the election because they contested with blood money. If the previous managing directors and chairmen of NDDC used the right contractors or have love for the region, they could have done far better.”

He lamented that the NDDC “has existed for 19 years. No one can pass through the Warri-Sapele road every year when it is raining. It is just 45 kilometres. It is a road we can award to fantastic company and people will say this is the NDDC road.

“If you do not love your children, you cannot give them the best. If you bring in those who do not love the region, they move their pocket forward instead of moving the region forward. I do not care about any allegation.

“What I care about is that things cannot remain the same again. In less than eight months, we have moved the managing director and other executive directors to the permanent site. It is an 18-storey building. It is totally finished. But it is 96 percent complete. Under 18 months, that is a will.

“What has happened in the NDDC is the people go there to steal the NDDC. If they attempt to steal the NDDC, then it means there will be no benefit for the people of Niger Delta.

“But they are paying N300 million annually as rent in the place they are using as an office in Port Harcourt. There was a building started under Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC). Yet, they could not complete it.

“When I was appointed the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, I prayed to God. I asked God to give me the ability to take insults that will come my way. At the same time, I asked God to give me the wisdom to turn around the Niger Delta.

“Of course, I expected all these things coming my way. If you place a seed, that seed must first die before it germinates. The NDDC must go through this process before it stands. We must give kudos to the president.”

Besides the proliferation of corrupt practices, the minister also identified paucity of funds as NDDC’s major challenge. He said the commission “needs more than what it is presently getting.”

He acknowledged that NDDC’s previous chairmen and managing directors “tried their best. I believe they tried their best in their own way. Unfortunately, because of paucity of funds, they could not make much impact.”

On the forensic audit, the minister disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari specifically said when he assumed office that it would not be business as usual again in the commission.

He added that this resolve explained why all the governors of the nine states “agreed that we should undertake forensic study.

“The NDDC started in 2000. But its operation commenced in 2001. The audit would cover a period between 2001 and 2019. So, you do not expect those who have been eating fat, even the staff members to be happy with it.

“The report of the forensic audit has not been made public because we are yet to visit state offices. Just last Wednesday, I approached the FEC and prepared the memo for the forensic auditors, who are going to the state. The forensic audit will be completed before December 2020 no matter the allegations.”

On the corruption allegations against him, Akpabio advised the former acting managing director “to go to the hospital; see a doctor; get some injection and relax.”

Asked whether Nunieh was sick, he said: “I am not saying anything is wrong with her. But something is wrong with her temperament. You do not need to ask me. But you ask about four other husbands she married.

“She was not relieved of her appointment because of corruption. But she was relieved of her appointment because of insubordination. My ministry that supervised her wrote seven letters to her. She never responded. And then she said she was bigger than the Minister of Niger Delta.”

Samorobo2:
Look I just want to be sure.i just didn't any to raise my hopes too high until I am very sure construction has commenced...
This is a win for uyo and Nigeria as a whole
.

LIFEPLAN:
Nice work. Carry on Mr. Udom.

Samorobo2:
Are you really that building is under construction cos there is no public media News whatsoever..

Did you ask those contractors on site yourself or are you just assuming..

Cmanforall:
I think it's gonna be the other way round. The generator will be the main source of power, while whatever they are called, PHCN, will be the alternative.
Any government that gives Nigeria upto 75% constant electricity will be the best! The transformation that will come with it is unimaginable!

OKEMKPI:
This is sign of a working governor,all we hear and see in anambra is Willy is working billboard everywhere,yet no project to show

Samorobo2:
Guy pls are you sure..hope this is not another things else cos I don't see the cranes, excavator e.t.c....
Are you the one that took those pictures? If yes can you kindly head back to that place and ask the contractors if that is the project..Thanks

Rossikki:
So long as it is powered, what is your problem?

You won't even know when they're using a gen in this type of building.

JordanMichael:
He's already out
He wouldn't be going for 3rd term

stacyadams:


And federal still prefers make everybody dey suffer traffic and containers falling and blocking roads in lagos

earnit3:
For what

lekecole:
Yes. I've got a few workers onboard

lekecole:
Get in here

Badmanne:
Mr sycophant , How much where you paid to write this one?
Lazy governors receiving free hand outs and making noise about meaningless white elephant while the masses wallow in poverty .

Litmus:
Its a pity US movies and images of Europe has brainwashed too many Nigerians into seeing high-rise buildings as evidence of sophistication and development when in reality they are in Europe and America mostly for the housing of the poor underclass.

uuzba:
Uncle, we are receiving the knock heavily and it isn't funny
Nigerian architects have only ONE problem.
They cannot guarantee that any fantastic shapes that they design with stand
They must submit their design to Nigeria structural engineers. Those structural engineers must then do all the load analysis and MAKE SURE that the building materials WE HAVE in this Nigeria can indeed bear all the funny loads.
Nigerian architects cannot guarantee that
They don't know anything more than their fantastic shape

This is where foreign Architects will come in, design same fantastic shape, THEN GIVE THEIR FOREIGN structural firms to analyse the structure loads ...
AND FINALLY, their foreign structure team will source the building materials from their Foreign links and build, import it here and
AND IT WILL STAND .
Whose fault now that Nigerian Architects fantastics shape was not used, but Foreign Architects shape was used?

donprinyo:
Confirm state. Other note, flex like me in pennywise today and ur life will change.