By Francis Sadhere, Warri
As the drama continue to unfold on the alleged massive looting going on in the Niger Development Commission, NDDC, a security expert and Chairman/Managing Director, Focus Guard Security, Mr Shola Mese, has called on the Federal Government to immediately scrap the commission, saying that it has become a conduit pipe for politicians to get rich over night.
Mese, who is also the founder of Shola Mese Foundation, an NGO dedicated serving humanity and crime reduction and helping Drug Addicts through Skill, told National Reformer in Warri that the commission has totally failed the people of the region.
He stressed that the Federal Government should rather employ the services of construction Companies like Julius Berger in place of the NDDC.
He said, “For me it is not about handing over the NDDC to the Presidency because they may even be worst than those in the NDDC. I would advice that they copy what former President Ibrahim Babangida did in the past.
“What the presidency should do is to handover whatever that is coming to the Niger Delta region to a construction company like Julius Berger. They should allow Julius Berger to come up with templates on how they are going to develop the region and then give them the money to do whatever construction they want to do in the region.
“What is going on in the NDDC is just massive looting. It’s like what we call security votes today. They do not account for it. Even when they agreed that they want to do a project in any part of the region, the projects are minus zero in terms of quality.
“So my candid advice is that they should hand over the construction of various projects to a construction company, pay the money into their account and let the company account for whatever they are spending on the project. That is the only way the region will benefit from what is being taken away from their land.
“We don’t want these monies to be in the hands of politicians who are only interested in stealing our money.”
Mese also said that carrying of placards in protest against what is going on in the region will not solve the problems.
“Carrying of placard will not work because these are things that can be arranged and before you know it the situation could be like what happened in Singapore and Ghana.
“So what we are saying is that the NDDC should be scrapped completely. They should forget about NDDC. We don’t want to hear about it again,” he said.
On the fight between the NASS and the NDDC, Mese said it was not surprising because their secrets have been revealed.
“Some persons felt sidelined and that is why they are quarreling. It is just like what happened between Festus Keyamo and the NASS. I am sure that of he had succumbed and allowed for a private meeting with members of the NASS, we would have not seen any fight. The NASS are all concerned about themselves and nobody else.
On the the way they NASS handled the investigation he said, we are not satisfied at all until the matter comes to an end.”
On Asari Dokubo’s comment that N81 bn spent by IMC is mere pick-pocketing compared to what Nigerians from other regions steal, Mese said, “I think Asari is right because there are other agencies across the country where Nigerians have stole a lot of money over the years compared to what is happening in the NDDC.
“All these things we are seeing today would not have come out if everybody involved were carried along. It is because some people did not get anything that is why they are crying. Asari is an insider and he knows what he is talking about. Since inception of the NDDC, all the people that have been in charge of the commission have been stealing it dry.
So what we want Buhari to do if he wants to keep his family’s name and integrity, is to sack all those involved in the stealing of our money, make them return the money and jail them.
