Full Press Statement:
The Joint Revolutionary Council comprising the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, The Reformed Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force and the Martyrs Brigade, we herein demand within the next 144 hours, the immediate and outright suspension of the entire board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the appointment of a Sole Administrator (pending the appointment of a new board at the expiration of the tenure of the current board) who will oversee the complete probe of the activities of the Commission since in inception in 2000.
If this demand is not followed, we will not have a choice but engage in acts of strategic sabotage. This is not a threat but a statement of intent.
In the past few years, reports of unbelievable embezzlements have been leveled against key officers of the commission and nothing has been done about this reports.
The Obasanjo regime overlooked these reports of corruption. Now President Musa Yar’Adua seems to be bent on ignoring it thanks to the efforts of Babagana Kingibe who seems to be reaping great compensations from the coffers of the Commission.
Contractors who abandon contracts such as shore protection and road projects have complained that the reason why they abandon contracts is largely because of the high kickbacks demanded by top officials of the Commission.
Abandoned contracts litter the nooks and crannies of the various communities in the Niger Delta shortchanging the people of the Niger Delta and putting a great dent in the efforts of our people to show appreciation for successes that have been achieved thus far.
The recent report of witchcraft and sorcery leveled against top management of the Niger Delta Development Commission has gone further to lend credence to the extent of wickedness, greed and base avarice that continues to drive those who today govern the affairs of the Commission which is supposed to provide social, economic and infrastructural development to the long suffering people of the Niger Delta region.
It has proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the management of the Commission is in the hands of desperate and over ambitious people whose only concern is to enrich themselves by any means possible whether by witchcraft, sorcery, blackmail and threats of assassination.
These people are not capable of leading development initiatives and must be brought to book immediately.
We also wish to use this opportunity to dissociate ourselves from a so-called training for militants said to be carried out by a fraud infested organization called the Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN).
As far as we are concerned, the only concern of this group is to extort monies from ignorant and uninformed corporate and private groups for their own selfish whims. The solutions to the problems of the youth of the Niger Delta do not lie in very expensive and non-productive one week non-violence training.
Solutions lie in an honest desire by those who lord over the Nigerian state to give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar. The billions of dollars harvested from the Niger Delta must be ploughed back to the communities that bear the brunt of the destructive activities of oil and gas exploration and exploitation.
We wish to commend the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) for its blunt but precise remarks about leaders of the Niger Delta. Once again, leaders in the Niger Delta especially senior management of the Niger Delta Development Commission have proven them right. Shame of these leaders!
The time has come for our people to rise up and call to judgment all those who continuously misappropriate the responsibilities they were given on our behalf.
While we recognize that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, it is important that those who are appointed to rule over affairs that impact directly on our lives and those of our loves ones must be above board in certain ramifications.
These people must be able to show strong leadership even in the face of challenges, high moral and ethical pedigree and an unshakeable fear of God. These virtues must never be compromised.
It is unfortunate that the Niger Delta today has become a harem of incompetent leadership from those who steal billions of naira from public coffers to those who coarse contractors to give billions of naira in kickbacks, those who resort to witchcraft and sorcery, those who plot the downfall of others by diabolic means and those who frame others by satanic media. They will all be judged.
We condemn these people in the fullest terms.