Akwa Ibom State leaders and elders have berated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for using funds which ought to be deposited into the national treasury for special projects mostly executed in the northern states of the country.
Coming under the aegis of Akwa Ibom Leaders Vanguard, the coordinator of the group, Senator Anietie Okon, told journalists in a press conference that while Nigerians slumber, the NNPC engages in the Federal Government “Special Projects”, to the tune of N43 billion from N16 billion in December which he describes a s illegal and criminal.
According to Senator Okon, “It is sad and worrisome that the Federal Government project is being executed and paid for by the NNPC from the revenue it should be remitting to the treasury of the nation”. He further highlighted, “Some of these shrouded subheads like PMS under recovery deductions have witnessed” increase to N43 billion in the same period. What manner of recovery cost the nation so much on a monthly basis? These ambiguous deductions require explanations even as the locations of the “Special Projects” must be identified and duly communicated as published in the February 2020 FAAC Executive Summary”. Senator Okon explained that Nigeria has continued to spiral in security and safety concerns with little or no positives beyond outrageous debits from excess crude accounts or the scandalous infighting between the notorious cabal and officials of the state. He accused the international oil firms of being part of the conspiracy as taxes due to the Akwa Ibom State government are being deliberately discounted for reasons not far from politics.
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Speaking on NDDC, the group said, “We decry the misuse of our sons to perpetrate confusion at the Niger Delta Development Commission by way of inefficiency under the tarred disguise of forensic investigation, endless board formations and ad-hoc recklessness. Sadly, our kith refuse to see the withered hand of Esau in these self-styled destructive attempts by the cabal and their willing cronies on the over-all non-development or prolonged deprivation of the Niger Delta whilst the North East Development Commission flourishes”.
As a way out of the present menace, the Akwa Ibom Leaders Vanguard demand the National Assembly to brace up to their oversight requirement and demand answers to the myriad of constitutional gaps demonstrated by a “bewildered executive arm and its appendages”. They also demand “executive orderliness in the dispense of appointments, investments, infrastructure, and promotion of genuine security for the common good of Nigeria in line with the Oath of Allegiance and Federal Character Principle as enshrined in the current constitution”.
Other demands, according to them, include the need to “address an immediate review of the skewed elements of the constitution as it affects internal security, community and state policing as recommended to allow for states to deploy legal structures instead of self-help that the nation has been consigned to”.
Akwa Ibom Leaders Vanguard also called for transferring of power generation and distribution to states. “Appropriate resources allocation revenue sharing to help unbundle the bloated executives, reduce its huge governance cost and resulting disenfranchisement of the poor masses of the nations”.
They also demanded from the NNPC to, as a matter of urgency, explain “the criteria for location and distribution of the so-called special projects as none is seen in Akwa Ibom State and wondered why the state hasn’t been considered fit for the location of any NNPC subsidiary”. The press conference had in attendance Senator Anietie Okon, Senator Effiong Bob, Senator Emmanuel Ibokessien, Senator Etang Umoyo and Senator Helen Esuene, among other prominent members of the Akwa Ibom Leaders Vanguard.
