Briga News Nigeria
The Ijaw Publishers’ Forum (IPF), the apex Ijaw media council in Nigeria, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the Managing Director of the NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku for alleged mismanagement of funds in the name of Youth Internship scheme tagged the project “HOPE” as Ogbuku claimed that 10,000 selected beneficiaries of the Commission’s Youth Internship scheme received N50,000 monthly stipends, adding that the Ogbuku programmes had no direct impact on the core oil bearing rural and riverine communities as residents of these places in Niger Delta had no Internet or smart phones to register the online programmes.
The Ijaw media Council said up till date, the Ogbuku 10,000 empowered youths remain ghosts and invisible as they threatened to send Ogbuku to jail either now or sooner.
In a statement signed by the spokesman of the Ijaw Publishers’ Forum, Comrade Ezekiel Kagbala, copies of which were made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday, said, “There are claims that 10,000 selected beneficiaries of the NDDC’s Youth Internship scheme have been receiving a monthly stipends of N50,000. However, IPF said such projects or programmes were scams with ghost identities being deliberately orchestrated to misappropriate the public funds, “Ogbuku should publish the beneficiaries and their account numbers, including figures allocated to each state in the nine Niger Delta States and criteria for the selection. The people of Niger Delta are eager to know how their money is spent”, he emphasised.
“The youth of the Niger Delta deserves better,” the statement read. “We cannot allow the funds meant for their development to be mismanaged or siphoned off. We urge the EFCC to act swiftly and investigate funds allocated to Projects ‘HOPE’ and other unrealistic projects of the commission under Dr. Ogbuku to restore public confidence in the NDDC.”
The IPF also vowed to continue monitoring NDDC and advocate for accountability and stewardship while encouraging the public to report fraudulent and abandoned projects, and programmes for public scrutiny.
“The Project HOPE was just a mere paper work created to divert funds meant to develop the Niger Delta region, and that it is unparalleled absurdity, broad day robbery and gross corruption of Ogbuku led NDDC for replacing and shortchanged over 10,000 Niger Delta youths with non-existent entities.
“Ogbuku’s management of NDDC is terrible, opaque and lacks accountability, Niger Delta people have the rights of benefit from an interventionist agency created to transform their lives and as such it is grave injustice and affront on the Niger Delta people who have been replaced with ghost entities”, they added.
