Comrade Timi Frank has strongly criticized the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Samuel Ogbuku, for allegedly signing an illegal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Atlantic Global Resources Inc. for a $15 billion Trans-Niger Delta Railway Project.
In a statement released in Abuja on Sunday, Frank condemned the NDDC’s MD’s actions, calling it a fraudulent act with deceitful intentions to siphon the resources of the commission.
The former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to take swift action in investigating and prosecuting the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Samuel Ogbuku, and his co-conspirators for attempted fraud and misappropriation.
Frank emphasized that the Act establishing the agency only vests the Chairman of the Governing Board of the NDDC with the power to enter into contracts with other firms.
He said: “It is worthy to note, that as part of the responsibility of the Governing Board of the NDDC, as empowered by its establishment Act No 6, 2000, only the Chairman is vested with the sole power to sign contracts or MoUs with any firm or organization.
“It is curious therefore, as to how only the Managing Director and a selected few in conievance with the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs would proceed to sign an MoU without the prior knowledge of the Chairman, but rather justifying an ultra vires action.
“The position of the NDDC management in its reaction affirming that the $15billion Railway MoU was signed for the preliminary process for a railway network and not an award of contract, suggests that ongoing talks with this company is another calculated attempt to defraud the Niger Delta people in the guise of ‘Preliminary Studies’ for a Trans-Niger Delta Railway.
“This shady MoU without due consultation with the board, carried out by the MD of NDDC, Samuel Ogbuku, with Atlantic Global Resources Inc, to build a railway network connecting the nine Niger Delta states can only be described as crass carelessness and outrightly insensitive at this time.
“Mr Ogbuku must be reminded that the struggle for the attainment of a better Niger Delta was a battle fought by many and thus as stakeholders in this struggle, we’re mandated to serve the people relentlessly rather than engaging in the same setbacks of the past.”
He added: “In the light of the above therefore, it is clear that the MD and his partners are clearly toeing the same path as the pre-forensic audit of the commission.
“Besides, in pursuit of a better Niger Delta, we’re poised to applaud laudable projects and disapprove of white elephant projects in this regard. “It is sad that whilst we continue to hope for overall growth and development of the region, we’re still confronted with weighty and dubious setbacks detrimental to the positive advancement of the zone.
“It will be foolhardy to jump on a Trans-Niger Delta Railway network’s feasibility, when the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had only recently in 2021 awarded a $11.7 Railway contract that would connect states in the entire region from Lagos.
“It is therefore shocking that an agency of government will seek to overide the prior approval of FEC and initiate another MoU on behalf of the NDDC and the Federal Government for the same project in 2023 without due process nor approval by FEC in the twilight of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
He said: “Any form of support in aiding the commission to secure loans for the purpose of this purported ‘Preliminary Studies’ for the railway construction must be rejected and resisted.
“The Niger Delta people are desirous of more sustainable programmes that positivelyaffect daily living rather than any phantom project.
“The NDDC must focus on the implementation of its original masterplan, which no board has achieved since inception and concentrate more on Human Resource Development programmes, including training of youths, provision of better healthcare, education, etc., and cease from being used as a conduit in impoverishing the people.”
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