The IMC of the NDDC is an interim arrangement put in place by Mr President to oversee the forensic audit of the Commission.The idea is to ensure that the place is cleansed up,so that a substantive board of the Commission would be constituted and inaugurated on a clean slate.

Insinuation by my brother and friend, Ab Udofia, that Mr President allowed himself to be used to bring the IMC on board is, to say the least, very insulting to the person and office of the President and Commander in chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We should be mindful of how we use words on the occupant of the highest political office in the land.

The activities of the IMC are being probed by the committees set up by the two chambers of the National Assembly. In other words,while the IMC is overseeing the forensic audit of the affairs of the past years of the Commission, its activities are being investigated by the National Assembly.

Out of the 19 years of the existence of the Commission, the IMC has been in place for less than a year. How then can it be held accountable for the rot at the Commission? How can it be held accountable for the looting that took place at the Commission for many years? How can it be blamed for the underdevelopment of the region?

Why shouldn’t the IMC be talking about the completion of the Commission’s permanent headquarters?.What is wrong about that? Was it uncompleted for 19 years,while the Commission was paying three hundred million naira annually as rent for the temporary headquarters?

So many things have been said and done by a lot of people to rubbish the integrity of the Minister of Niger delta Affairs and the IMC of the NDDC with a view to scuttling the forensic audit of the Commission. A dog would always be given a bad name for it to be killed.

It is wrong to insinuate that the IMC was put in place to allow “one man” he couldn’t mention his name unchecked control over the affairs of the Commission. If I may ask,is the Commission not under the supervision of the Ministry of Niger delta Affairs as directed by Mr President?

Nobody should preempt the findings and report of the forensic audit of the Commission,except,the person or someone he or she knows has skeletons in his cupboard. It is only the guilty that can be afraid of the exercise and work to rubbish it. Those of us who don’t have skeletons in our cupboards are not apprehensive that the report of the exercise would be concocted or doctored.

As stated by the Hon Minister of Niger delta Affairs,forensic audit of the concluded on or before December this year when the life span of the IMC,as extended by Mr President,would have come to an end and a substantive board would be constituted and inaugurated on a clean slate to run the place.

Otuekong Iniobon
Akwa Ibom State Chairman,
APC National Youth Caucus