Bayelsa youths under the aegis of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide accused the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio of overseeing an unending forensic audit and illegal extension of the tenure of the sole administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Efiong Akwa, describing it as a delib-erate attempt to delay the constitution of a substantive NDDC board.
According to the youths, though the conduct of the forensic audit was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari and supported by the stakeholders from the region, Senator Godswill Akpabio has turned the forensic audit into an unending exercise used to perpetuate corruption and further bleed the commission of scarce funds.
The spokesman of the IYC, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, who made the statement in Yenagoa, said instead of the submission of the audit report to President Muhammadu Buhari in April as promised and the constitution of the substantive board as demanded by stakeholders of the region, Akpabio has rather extended the date for the submission of the audit report from April to July and surreptitiously extended the tenure of the sole administrator.
“This is totally unacceptable and will be resisted,” he said.
He said Ijaw youths had lost confidence in any report that will be submitted to President Buhari from the shady and unending forensic audit.
“We no longer have confidence in the forensic audit because it is a mere ploy to pocket the NDDC under the whims and caprices of the minister in perpetuity. We opine that the governors of the South-South region under the chairmanship of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa should immediately send a strong delegation to President Buhari and re-state the position of the region over our displeasure and warn of the impending danger of not appointing a sub-stantive board at a time other parts of the country are facing serious security crisis.”
