TRACKING ___The immediate past Commissioner of Labour Employment and Productivity and a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State, Chief Collins Cocodia, has lambasted all the past and present leadership of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, for what he described as neglecting their core mandate of developing the Niger Delta.
Chief Cocodia who was speaking this Monday on a live programme, Talk To Bayelsa, on Glory FM in Yenagoa, decried the level of underdevelopment rocking the region despite the amount of money allocated to the commission.
According to him, if about fifty percent of the monies had been properly channeled since the commission was established, the region would have been much more better than what is ground today.
“Am not happy with what is going on in the Niger Delta Development Commission today. Shortly after the commission was established there was a master plan that was designed for the region. What happened to that master plan? I can tell you clearly that since its creation in 2000, several trillions of naira have been given to the NDDC, but looking at the region today, you will see that the NDDC has failed the region”.
While throwing shades at the different Managing Directors that oversaw the affairs of the commission, who only saw the appointment as an opportunity to amass wealth for themselves and cronies, Chief Collins Cocodia hinted that every year preceding an election year, the NDDC receives huge allocations of money, only to be siphoned by desperate politicians for their own benefit.
He equally alleged that other regions have benefited more from the NDDC than the Niger Delta region itself, since most of the contractors are from other areas, and most times, do not execute the contracts awarded to them.
“For things to turn around, the orientation that whosoever becomes the Managing Director of the NDDC, will say it is their turn, has to change. It is appalling that Niger Deltans are the ones under developing the region, whereas an average person, who is not so affluent, will become q millionaire or billionaire, when leaving the commission as a Managing Director. All these happenings are really disheartening.”
The former Youth Development Commissioner, canvasses for jail sentence for those found wanting of financial recklessness and abandoning contracts, so as to serve as a deterrent to those nursing the idea of towing the ugly path.
Chief Cocodia further called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and other anti graft agencies, to consistently beam their search lights on the commission. For the forensic audit, he suggested that a foreign audit firm should be assigned to carry out the exercise, as anything other than that will be effort in futility.
