The Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) has lamented that the Interim Management Committee running the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is running the agency without the participation of supposed beneficiaries.

The youths on Monday said that the opaque style adopted by the NDDC, which is an interventionist agency set up to accelerate development of the region was not living up to that bidding.

Recall that the Federal Government had on February 20, 2020 appointed a five-man Interim Management Committee to run the NDDC before the inauguration of the newly constituted board of the Commission.

IYC position was contained in a statement signed by its Chairman, Transition Implementation Committee, Mr. Kennedy Olorogun, Secretary and a member of the committee, Frank Akiefa and James Tobin.

The group said that for instance NDDC claimed that it procured medical equipment to tackle Lassa fever in the Niger Delta area but there was no evidence of such contracts in the region.

Olorogun regretted that successive management of the Commission was marred by controversies especially in the area of fund management.

“Recently, the council was alarmed to the effect that under the leadership of Prof. Nelson Brambaifa and Dr Joy Yimebe Nunieh, the commission reportedly, approved the sum of N2.9 bn with an outstanding balance of N972million for the purchase of medical facilities for Lassa Fever kits, Cholera vaccines and Science equipment.

“And the Commission admitted that these items were supplied and distributed to various communities in the region.

“Without mincing words, the council frowns at the opaque manner the management of the commission conducts its activities especially as it relates to the management and distribution of the financial resources meant for the development of the region.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the council is up in arms with the commission on the said humongous funds that was approved by the commission for the purchase of medical items that would have been utilized for the benefit of the people of the region but was fraudulently frittered away by the top echelon of the Commission.

“At no time was the council intimated about the activities of the commission with respect to the distribution of medical items for maternity purposes.

“The council has a very efficient and robust administrative structure down to the communities across the states of the Niger Delta.

“Therefore, it is amazing to hear that the commission distributed medical items to aid safe motherhood delivery in the region as a result of a ravaging flood that affected the region” it stated.

Olorogun urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to probe the Lassa fever contract and how the health equipment was disbursed in the region.

The Federal Government had awarded a N318 million contract for a forensic audit of NDDC following allegations of mismanagement of development funds.

The report of the audit expected to be concluded in six months is being awaited.