The Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND) and a coalition of groups in the Niger Delta region, have appealed to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana, to mandate the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to look into monies owed contractors handling water hyacinth and agriculture grants in the region.
They also appealed to the newly appointed acting NDDC Managing Director, Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua, to review and recommend payments to the interventionist agency’s contractors with verifiable claims for jobs completed, more especially those from the NDDC Contractors Association (NCA).
The groups, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on their behalf by MOSIEND national president, Ambassador Kennedy Tonjo West, lamented that the local economy of the Niger Delta States, namely Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Ondo and other contiguous States, have been devastated by the flood and were in dire need of rehabilitation and resuscitation.
West said: “Payment for award of contracts for the clearance of water hyacinth on our waterways should be considered expeditiously as hyacinth has virtually covered the waterways along the creeks of the region making it unsafe for boats and other Marine vessels to navigate.
“Also we urge them to review and pay the proposed agricultural grants to cooperatives and SMEs to revive and rebuild the local economy of the region.
“The local economy of the Niger Delta states, namely Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Ondo and other contiguous states have been devastated by the flood and are in dire need of rehabilitation and resuscitation of their economy.
“We have implicit confidence in the managerial capability of the Niger Delta Affairs Minister, Obong Umana Okon Umana and we appreciate the good intentions he has for the people of the region.
“We that if prompt action is given to these appeal, it will go a long way towards enhancing cash flow in our communities thereby alleviating the massive poverty induced by the ravaging floods, and the deliberate abandonment of strategic recurrent policies that ought to serve as bolsters to grassroots socio-economic activities.”
He, however, took a swipe at the immediate-past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for allegedly encouraging policies that supported mediocrity and mismanagement of funds budgeted for the Niger Delta region.
The MOSIEND leader warned that that any attempt to divert the approved budget of the ministry and NDDC will be resisted, saying that the funds were not intended to service the bourgeois in the society but development of the Niger Delta region.
