A former national spokesman for the Ijaw Youth Council, Ekerefe Ebilade, has urged the Federal Government to release the unpaid N2tn allocation due to the Niger Delta Development Commission amounting.
Ebilade, who made the call in a chat with journalists in Yenagoa on Sunday, said the unpaid allocations were an indication of underfunding of the interventionist agency over the years.
The PUNCH reports that the NDDC Managing Director, Samuel Ogbuku, informed the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC chaired by Ibori Suenu-Erhiatake that the Federal Government owed the agency N2tn.
The MD claimed the amount was the accumulation of 15 percent of the allocation of the nine states that make up the region, due to the commission since 2000. He said the funds were not remitted to the agency despite the passage of the agency’s budget in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Ebilade said if the Federal Government settled the huge debt, the commission would be able to revisit and carry out some of the massive projects contained in the Niger Delta Master Plan for the people of the region.
He said, “The Federal Government should pay up the over N2tn being owed the NDDC since the year 2000. The amount is the accumulation of 15 percent of the allocation of the nine states that make up the region, due to the commission since 2000. This is despite the passage of the agency’s annual budgets in 2021, 2022, and 2023; the funds were yet to be remitted to the commission’s account.
“For me, I have confidence in the capacity of the management of the commission, led by Dr Samuel Ogbuku, to probably revisit some of the projects earmarked in the Niger Delta Master Plan. But we need the Federal Government to pay up the huge (amount of) money owed the commission.”
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