A civil society organisation under the aegis of North-East Progressive Youths Forum (NEPYF), has dismissed the three-day ultimatum given to the Managing Director of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Mr. Mohammed Alkali, to respond to allegations of mismanagement of budgetary allocations to the agency amounting to N146,191,606,649.25.
In a statement issued by its chairman, Mr. Mohammed Adamu Grema, which was made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday, the group argued that with the recent creation of the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to complement the activities of EFCC and ICPC, a single commission can’t misappropriate such a humongous amount of public fund without consequences, more so that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has zero tolerance for corruption.
Grema said some groups operating as Al-Mushahid Initiative for Transparency and Accountability, and the People’s Advocacy for Transparency and Accountability had asked the NEDC to respond to their allegation or issue or it will be reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigerian Police Force, and other anti-graft agencies.
NEPYF described the two groups as jokers, saying: “The two kangaroos transparency and civil society groups have called on the Managing Director of the North-East Development Commission, Mohammed Alkali, to respond to allegations of mismanagement of budgetary allocations, amounting to N146,191,606,649.25.
“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have dignified these urban hustlers and blackmailers with a response, however, for the sake of posterity, it has become imperative for us to set the record straight and expose this mobile civil society organization for whom they are and to equally draw the attention of the world to the successes recorded by the Managing Director of the Northeast Development Commission within the period of his reign.”
Grema accused the groups of being unserious in their threat against NEDC, because rather than being resolute, they resorted to pleading with the managing director of the commission to respond to them, adding that there is no serious CSO that would turn to a beggar of response from heads of agencies.
Grema praised the NEDC and revealed some of their achievements to include establishment and construction of Burns Centres at FMC Yola, Adamawa State, and UMTH Maiduguri, Borno State. Covid 19 and other Contagious Diseases Laboratories in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe States are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities including the donation of ambulances, ventilators, hospital beds, and PPE among other critical medical equipment.
In other to address the issue of housing, the NEDC has constructed 1,000 mass housing units at Ngwom Town, Mafa LGA, and currently, construction of 500 Mass Housing Units is ongoing in the States of Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe respectively.
In Borno State, the Commission is constructing the 22.5km Jere Bowl Area Roads Network (Phase I) while in Bauchi State, NEDC is reconstructing Kirfi to Gombe Abba 53km Road and drainages, culverts on Alkaleri-Futuk Road and in Gombe State, 53km Gombe-Abba-Kirfi Road.
Other Road projects include the 54km Mutai-Ngalda Road in Yobe State, the reconstruction of the Kudzum bridge on Mubi – Bama Road, 32km Garkida-Dabna Road as well as 2.5km Road at College of Education Hong, in addition to Jabbi Lamba–Belel Transborder Road in Adamawa State and reconstructed Mayo Ndaga bridge in Taraba State.
“Due to the impressive performance of the Commission in various Sectors, the National Assembly has on different occasions, commended it for its superlative achievements and gave it clean bill of health. Similar commendations also came from other private and public organizations which even conferred awards on the Commission. We are not here to blow the trumpet of the Commission but if the truth must be told, within its short period of existence, NEDC has impacted positively on the lives of millions of people in the region and the number is still growing”, the statement added.
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