NDDC chair, Onochie, accuses past boards of squandering money in Abuja, London, Dubai

Newly inaugurated chair of the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Lauretta Onochie, has accused past boards of looting money meant for the development of the region and going on a squandering spree in Abuja, Dubai, London and other places.

Onochie who lamented the state of the Niger Delta region despite huge amounts of money pumped into the Commission in the last 20 years, expressed dissatisfaction with the impact of the agency in the region, describing it as shameful.

While addressing management and staff of the Commission on resumption at the headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Thursday, Onichie said she would change the fortunes of the Commission for the benefit of the region.

“This is an organisation, a commission that was commissioned specifically for the people of Niger Delta. It is an interventionist agency that is supposed to bring about prosperity; it is supposed to bring development in our region. This organisation was set up in the year 2000.

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“And, if you go round the Niger Delta till date, there is little or nothing to show for it. NDDC has been a shame of the Niger Delta and a shame of our nation. President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been determined to turn things around.

“Over 20 years the money that was expended in this region, they found their ways to Abuja, to Lagos, to Dubai, London, USA, everywhere, except the Niger Delta.

“And when the government tries to correct things, they use some of the money to mobilise those same people they have put under them to protest against what the government is doing in their own favour. The time has come to say ‘stop, let it serve Niger Delta.

“I believe that there are some of us here who are where they shouldn’t be, there are some who are not where they should be. All the injustice we have seen in this Niger Delta, we will correct them,” she said.

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