Pastor Peters Omoragbon, the governorship candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the Edo State governorship candidate, has said that right from its establishment, the Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC) has remained a fraud.
Omoragbon, in his reaction to the ongoing allegations over massive looting in the NDDC, said the agency was never established to genuinely take care of the region, or was set up to compensate the people of the region.
According to him, “The establishment of the NDDC was and is still a fraud. It has nothing to do with resource control or regionalisation or federalism. NDDC did not replace the quest for true federalism or resource control by the brewers and hewers of the wood from the Niger Delta. It was a dubious creation by the ruling class to reward their political hangers on.”
He stressed that the rot and decay currently playing out in the NDDC was a reflection of the failure of the government in power and the political elites and not the failures of the people of the region.
He maintained that both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had been ruling the nation had remained epitome of corruption, hence the looting of public funds in the agency was not a surprise, adding that “the baby snake would always inherit the venom of its mother. It is not acquired but inherited.”
The NCP flag bearer said: “True Federalism or modern federalism is a system based upon democratic rules and institutions in which the power to govern is shared between national and provincial/state governments.
“The idea that because of what is happening now is enough to rule out the readiness of Nigerians to practice true federalism is skewed and a dubious attempt to give a dog a bad name to hang it.
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“In the first place, how on earth would the Federal Government think that by allocating 13% from the revenue made from the Niger Delta is equitable whilst you expend 87% to develop mostly the Northern parts of Nigeria?
“NDDC from the onset was set up to fail because if the government was sincere, it would have allowed the communities themselves to elect amongst their communities people whom they can hold accountable to form the core of the managers.
“A situation where you now appoint your political stooges as a means of compensating them for their support through the pilfering of the states’ resources to fund your political campaign is another way of telling them ‘thank you’ for your support. Look at EFCC, is the rot there different?
“Would you now say because the police are corrupt or EFCC is even more corrupt that Nigeria is not ripe enough for state police? What does that position breed? It breeds discontent and lawlessness.
“You now have regional security outfits like the Amotekun and others. How would you control such if the Federal Government fails to provide the enabling environment for true federalism? He who prevents a peaceful change, is calling inevitably for a violent revolution-Nigeria is moving towards that, mark my word, it will come to pass.”
Omoragbon stated that if he is elected the governor Edo State, he would ensure that a fresh forensic audit of NDDC would be carried out from 1999-2020 to ascertain how much had accrued to Edo State from the NDDC and revalidate all contracts awarded in Edo State under the NDDC proceeds and where any mismanagement is found, the state would recover all from everyone concerned. The last has not been heard yet about the NDDC.”
