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(Abuja)
A Civil Society Organisation (CSO),Act for Positive Transformation Initiative, has called for the alleged “Coronavirus drama and continuous corruption” in the Niger Delta Development Commission,(NDDC).
Mr Kolawole Johnson,Head, Directorate of Research, Strategy & Programmes,Act for Positive Transformation Initiative, made the call during a news conference on Sunday in Abuja.
He said the call was also in line with the mandate of CSOs, aimed at sanitised the society of corruption.
“Patriotism means to stand by your country, not to stand with any public official, save to the degree in which the official stands by the country.
“For us as civil society organizations, it is unpatriotic not to oppose public officials when they fail in their duties to the country. It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, especially as it touches corruption, mis-governance and open rape of people’s trust.
“The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has been in focus since April, obviously for the wrong reasons. The audacity for looting and dark tendencies has surged uncontrollably in recent days.
“This worrisome development calls for serious interrogation, investigation and immediate action.
“The late Executive Director of Finance & Administration died in the early hours of Thursday, May 28th, 2020. Very early in the day, our organization, Act for Positive Transformation Initiative, had intercepted a sinister ploy to weave the unfortunate death around COVID-19. Some newspapers subtly reported this online. By 1p.m, we were on a national television where we further warned actors to desist from such satanic plot.
“We also revealed that the plan involved shutting down NDDC offices, forcing staff to go on isolation and eventually returned with COVID-19 positive status claims in the public.
” All these have played out. We must act to prevent life as the end of the ploy may lead to more casualties.
“To this end, we are calling for immediate investigations of the COVID-19 claims of NDDC officials. We call on National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the Ministry of Health, the Presidential task Force on COVID-19 and all relevant agencies to immediately investigate NDDC claims and NCDC officials in Rivers State.
“We also appeal to, Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation who doubles as the head of PTF on COVID-19 to compel NDDC to make available, names of officials they claim are positive.
“We kept tabs on the movement of some officials, we can indeed provide information on where some of them visited to help in contact tracing, besides their immediate communities and families will certainly be of help during investigation,”he said.
According to Johnson, the whole ploy is meant to jeopardize the ongoing probe of the commission.
He urged the National Assembly to hasten its investigation of the Commission and to involve the CSO in such investigation.
“We want to duly and responsibly inform the National Assembly and relevant agencies that the amount under probe should be over N75 billion and not the touted N 40 billion.
“The discoveries will amaze Nigerians as to so many uses of regulations.
“This is the time to block all loopholes. It is time to truly kill corruption else corruption will kill us,”Johnson stressed.
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