Militants accuse NDDC officials of corruption

According to Vanguard, the militant group accused NDDC officials of coercing and collection 10% kick-back from contractors.

The NDRC also slammed the NDDC Chairman, Senator Ndoma Egba for calling them criminals.

The group, in a statement signed by its spokesman, W O I Izon-Ebi, said “In seven days’ time, Victor Ndoma Egba, and his NDDC board will know that we are professionals that do not only know how to bomb pipelines for calling us criminals. The sudden call of the chairman of the NDDC, Victor Ndoma Ebga, is hypocritical because this present NDDC board chaired by Victor Ndoma Egba is visionless. Urging aggrieved militants to stop bombing of pipe line is coming too late.”

They also gave the Federal Government a list of their demands which they want met with immediate effect.

According to NDRC, “We want The Federal Government to allow the people of Niger Delta region to choose their leaders and control their God -given resources.

“We want the appointment of directors of all Federal Government agencies and parastatals in the Niger Delta to be apolitical, we want the federal government to allow the people of the Niger Delta to recommend the best brains and technocrats to occupy the various offices if truly they are sincere and committed to the well-being, peace and development of the Niger Delta;

“We want the Ministry of Niger Delta to be probed from the tenure of former minister, Elder Godsday Orubebe to date and the East-West Road in particular; “We want also the NDDC to be probed from the time of Dan Abia to the present Board;

“We want the present board of the NDDC to be sacked immediately because they lack vision and focus;

“We want the EFCC to swing into action to probe the present NDDC board because with the facts available to us, which we would publish next, it will be shameful if this present administration that rode to power with the slogan of fighting corruption refuses to hear our plea. We, on our own, will make that place ungovernable for them because NDDC was created by the sacrifices and blood of the Niger Delta people. We would not sit and watch some group of unpatriotic Niger Deltans that lack vision of the NDDC to continue to enrich themselves to the detriment of the Niger Delta.”

They also threatened to attack government parastatals saddled with the responsibility of developing the Niger Delta.

The group said “We, the Niger Delta Revolutionary Crusaders, NDRC, want to urge him (Ndoma Egba) to match his word with action because we are not going to bomb pipelines again, but focus our strength on all the federal agencies in the Niger Delta region that are saddled with the responsibility of developing and empowering the Niger Deltans, such as NDDC, Niger Delta Ministry and the Niger Delta Basin Development Authority.”

ALSO READ:US urges FG to dialogue with Niger Delta Avengers

Adding that “Last year, Ndoma Egba as the chairman of NDDC, allowed his director of finance to make a shameful statement that the present NDDC board is there to serve the APC, not the Niger Delta region. The director said ‘we are to serve the APC that gave us the mandate, not everybody in the Niger Delta, so if you are coming to the NDDC, bear it in mind that is the turn of APC, it is for APC members alone.’ “Our concern is this: After collecting allocation from the federal government to develop the Niger Delta and also counterpart funding from all oil multinationals in the Niger Delta region, they end up embezzling the funds with nothing to show for it in the Niger Delta.”

This is coming few weeks after the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo visited the Niger Delta to hold talks with stakeholders in the oil rich region.