NDDC forensic audit report: This is beyond Akpabio

The elaborate plans by some discredited politicians and their corrupt contractors to demean the Forensic Audit Report recently presented to the federal government shows how desperate they are to escape from the law. There is nothing more to write to discredit the NDDC Forensic Audit Report presented to President Buhari last Thursday.

Whether the Report was submitted in Ghana-Must-Go bags or trunk boxes, whether it was presented to the President himself or his representative, the fact remains that the Audit Report is now the property of the federal government of Nigeria, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubarkar Malami has pledged that it would be “critically analyzed for necessary action and implementation”. The matter is no longer about Godswill Akpabio or Annang versus Ibibio; or it is not about one ethnic group fighting another as some persons tried to portray it initially. The Report is now a subject of criminal investigation of immense national importance. It is evidence PW001.

I should advise that if you’re an unscrupulous contractor or a compromised former management staff of the commission who may have a case to answer, it is better to brief a lawyer that would defend you than to hire a Jackson Ude to write defamatory tweets from his base in the US. If the President did not sack the minister despite the avalanche of fabricated publications and all the contrived probes at the National Assembly that happened last year, is it Jackson Ude’s poorly written tweets that would provoke General Buhari to discard the Report?

If the President was not moved by Joi Nunieh’s childish talk on TV, the false accusations of one fake NGO and the paid protesters in Port Harcourt to sack Akpabio and discontinue with the audit, it is highly unlikely that Jackson Ude’s tweet or any other publications would convince the president to discard the Report. This is the same Jackson Ude that falsely accused the Vice President last year of collecting N900 billion from FIRS and receiving N6 billion from Ibrahim Magu for the 2019 election. Any indicted contractor that hires Jackson Ude to write for him is not intelligent at all.

Even Hushpuppy is smarter than that. In my article published in The Guardian newspaper July last year titled ‘’Who is after Yemi Osinbajo’’ in which I rebutted Ude’s malicious attacks against the VP, I wrote: “So it stands to reason that both FFK and Ude are still bitter at the crushing defeat of President Goodluck Jonathan, and are still nursing grudges against the VP who was a major asset to the APC ticket and has become an important member of the Buhari team’’. A renowned journalist, Franklyn Isong, has also taken Ude to task on his fake report that the President did not want to receive the Forensic Report from Senator Akpabio.

“If the Attorney General of the Federation did not get the mandate of the President to receive the report on his behalf, why has presidential spokesperson not issued a statement distancing the president from the report more than 24 hours after?’’ writes Isong who is also the Chairman of Akwa Ibom State Chapter of the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO). He adds quite ominously: ‘’Now that the Report has been submitted, I see more attacks on Akpabio than what he went through during the exercise’’. I also expect these attacks to keep coming.

I join millions of the people of the Niger Delta region in commending Senator Akpabio, the Minister of the Niger Delta Affairs; Mr Efiong Akwa, the NDDC Chief Executive and the management of the commission for the successful completion of the audit exercise. I salute President Buhari for being resolute and unflinching in his resolve to get the audit concluded. Great leaders are not easily swayed by flimsy distractions.

We now understand that the audit covered 13,777 contract projects and programmes awarded to contractors and consultants in all the 9 NDDC States from 2001 to August 2019 at a total contract value of N3.274 trillion. The revelation that the commission has 362 different bank accounts without proper reconciliation of these accounts is quite worrisome. I thank the auditors for their meticulousness and diligence. The fact that they were not out to witch-hunt anybody; rather they focused on funding gaps, irregularities, mismanagement, due process violations and conflict of interest testifies to the good intentions of the government and governors of the region that asked for the audit.

It is notable that the auditors also made far-reaching recommendations to the government, including remedial and preventive measures that would prevent further abuses in the agency. The revelation that the commission has received N6 trillion from 2001 to August 2019 without making much impact on the lives of the poor masses of the region makes the audit exercise so compelling. It is therefore advisable for whoever is afraid of the contents of the Audit Report to tread carefully. Any attempt to further create unnecessary tensions could instigate the people of the Niger Delta to ask the federal government to open the Pondera Box fully and bring the culprits to book. The Niger Delta has seen so much deprivation despite all the trillions of Naira sunk in. The region now deserves peace to turn the corner.

I urge the federal government to implement all of the auditors’ recommendations that that aim to build better processes, create a better organizational structure and enhance good corporate governance in the commission. With the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act and the expected reforms in the NDDC, President Buhari is truly a transformative leader for the Niger Delta people.