President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to extend the probe into the management of funds so far released for the development of the Niger Delta to the 13% Derivation Fund.
The president recently ordered a probe of all funds that had entered the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from inception, following revelations of alleged huge financial fraud in the commission.
However, the oil and gas Host Communities of Nigeria (HOSCON) urged President Buhari to extend same treatment to the 13% Derivation Fund, which had so far been paid to the state government of the nine states in the Niger Delta league, asking the president to follow the 1999 Nigerian Constitution and redirect the management of the fund to the host communities.
HOSCON, in a statement issued by its National Director of Media and Publicity, Okakuro Monday Whiskey, observed that, just like the NDDC, the 13% Derivation Fund had given above N44 trillion to the oil-rich region, but lamented that the fund had not achieved anything that could be seen anywhere in the region.
According to the body, which enlisted its support for the president’s probe order on the finances of the NDDC and urged all other stakeholders of the region to follow suit, the governors of states in the league had hijacked the derivation fund, spending same on their various fantasies, which have no relationship with the people of the region.
“The Host Communities of Nigeria (HOSCON) under the leadership of Dr Mike Emuh joins millions of Nigerians to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for the bold initiative to order for forensic probe of the NDDC. For nineteen years running, billions of naira have been allocated without commensurate infrastructural facilities to show for it.
“For the Niger Delta governors, whose management of 13% Derivation Fund is today generating a lot of controversy because of huge mismanagement and outright embezzlement of funds meant for human capital and infrastructural development of their respective states, to want to tell the president on how to appoint people into NDDC is most uncharitable and unbecoming of them.
“HOSCON will want the president to urgently redirect the management of 13% Derivation Fund as the current governors’ management efforts is more bedevilled with fraud than is currently obtained in the NDDC.”
According to the group, “the redirection of 13% Derivation Fund remains the only solution to the multi-trillion naira fraud that occurred in the current management regime of 13% Derivation Fund. Just like the NDDC, the 13% Derivation Fund has received over N44trillion in the past nineteen years and if we want to be fair to ourselves we should be bold enough to say nothing tangible is on ground to justify these huge allocations.
“We should support these bold initiatives of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the right things are done now to guarantee a better future for the rich oil/gas region. NDDC fund, just like 13% fund, are not free money that some few individuals can appropriate to themselves without questioning or check. A new Sheriff is, indeed, coming to town,” the statement said.
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