Militants under the aegis of Niger Delta Volunteers (NDV) have asked anti-graft agencies in the country to investigate the Akwa Ibom state government’s handling of local government funds since 2015.

It therefore issued 14 days ultimatum to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to begin the investigation.

It threatened hostilities and disruption of the activities of government and multinational oil companies in the state should the EFCC and ICPC fail to initiate a probe of how council funds are spent in the state.

NDV in a press release on Wednesday signed by its leader in the state, ‘General’ Ekpo Ekpo alleged local that local government chairmen in the state were operating on zero allocation.

It accused Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration of tampering with council allocations totalling N2.23 trillion since taking over in 2015, a situation which has crippled grassroots development.

”It is a common fact that the government of Akwa Ibom state under the leadership of Udom Emmanuel has been misappropriating, mismanaging and misusing local government council funds while coercing the local government chairmen to sign the amount they have not received.

”The state governor has been starving local government areas in the state without substantial development projects hence our call for accountability, Since the swearing-in of the present local government council chairmen last year, the situation has become worse as the governor declared zero allocation, therefore, making the councils ineffective and malfunctions without projects,” the NDV said.

The State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Iniobong Ememobong did not respond to calls and text messages sent to him on the matter.

But the State House of Assembly has denied that local government council chairmen were running on zero allocation.

In a recent media interaction with Chairman, State House of Assembly Committee on Information, Mr. Dennis Akpan, he said the council chairmen were getting their due allocation every month.

He said local government chairmen would be invited to the Assembly to state if they were actually operating on ‘zero’ allocation as alleged in some quarters.

(The Nation)

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