George Onah
Port Harcourt – Following the presidential committee set up to investigate the activities of the Niger Delta Development Commission, the Niger Delta Contractors Forum has said the move by the nation’s leadership would stem the drift in the commission.
Also, some stakeholders in the region have kicked against the planned merger of the commission with the Ministry of Niger Delta, pointing out that the two agencies were created for different purposes.
However, the contractors’ forum, an umbrella organization of indigenous contractors across the Niger Delta states appealed to the panel to do everything within its reach to expose any untoward activities of the commission
In a statement by the secretary of NIDECOF, Sam Etim Sam in in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, weekend, the group said the people of the region were disturbed by the series of allegations there as well as the in-fighting that has rocked the management since the inception of this administration.
It wants the committee to also look into the issue of abandoned projects that have littered the Niger Delta region and called on the president to publish the report of the previous panel set up to investigate the activities of the commission.
“If such reports had been made public, it would have tackled some of the problems the commission is currently grappling with today” and called on the president to inject more money into the commission, after the probe, so as to enable it “to adequately tackle the problems of infrastructural decay in the region”.
On the proposed merger the stakeholders said the planned arrangement to merge the NDDC with the Niger Delta Ministry, would be detrimental to the overall benefits of the region.
