22nd June, 2018
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has called on the public to disregard a statement credited to an unnamed Non-Governmental Organisation over some of the commission’s projects.
Mr Ibitoye Abosede, NDDC’s Director of Corporate Affairs, made the call in a statement in Port Harcourt.
He said the NDDC was aware of plans to tarnish the image of the commission.
Abosede said: “Our attention has been drawn that some paid agents have commissioned some hatchet-men to spread malicious lies about the NDDC.
“The group, which operates under the guise of a questionable Non Governmental Organisation was commissioned to throw mud at NDDC executives and the APC-led Federal Government.
“Recently, a photo-shopped image of a road project, which had been circulating online for months, was fraudulently and falsely represented as an NDDC project.”
He said that information concerning the commission had been deliberately distorted to distract the people of the region.
“The image was circulated online in a bid to create the impression that the commission’s road projects are executed without recourse to basic project standard.
“We have been reliably informed that more of this mudslinging, falsehood, mischief, unwarranted and politically motivated attacks have been planned with increased intensity in the coming days,” he said.
Abosede said the commission welcomes scrutiny and objective criticism in the pursuit of its mandate of developing the Niger Delta.
He said the commission was fully focused on achieving its mandate of providing rapid social and infrastructural development of the region.
The spokesman also explained that NDDC, as an intervention agency, was not in competition with any of the nine Niger Delta state governments.
“We ask that the commission and its representatives be allowed to focus on the onerous responsibility of developing the region.
“We are more concerned about governance, which impacts positively on the people, than divisive and fraudulent politicking.
“Through our structures, we have extended our hands of cooperation and partnership to all nine Niger Delta states,” he said.
Abosede further said that under the current NDDC board and management, Akwa Ibom had enjoyed the largest share of projects as the leading oil producing state in the country.