BENIN CITY – THE Paramount Ruler of Idjerhe Kingdom of Delta State, His Majesty, King Obukowho Monday . A. Whiskey, Udurhie I has called for the suspension of the funding of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Besides, he called on the federal government to sue its Cameroun counterpart over the flooding across the country as a result of the country opening its dam even as he said the Minister of Niger Delta, Umana Umana is not doing enough for the people he is representing.
Speaking to journalists from Benin City in his palace yesterday, Whiskey said “Today is 18th of October 2022 and therefore marks the third year anniversary of the supposedly screened, confirmed board of the Niger Delta Development Commission which Mr President sent to the Senate on the 18th of October, 2019.
“It is unfortunate that three years after and from that time till now, it is three years and within that time, over N700 billion has been allocated to the NDDC for developmental purposes.
The question to be asked is where are they carrying out this development? Contractors are dying, they are not being paid, NDDC is being run like a private empire, from interim management
committee we have now moved to a stage of sole administrator and we have thought that with the changing of the former minister and coming in of Umana Umana, that he should not have wasted time to inaugurate the board but rather than carry out that sole responsibility, what we are seeing now is not what we bargained for.
“I want to say that for the federal government to prove to our people that they are not the one encouraging the illegality that is on-going in the NDDC, all further funding of the NDDC should be stopped except only for the payment of staff salaries.”
On the flood, the traditional ruler said “We can no longer access Port- Harcourt City from Delta State because the road has been washed away by flood. This is a serious national disaster. I don’t see any reason why the Nigerian government should not sue the Cameroon government or individual state affected by the flooding should not sue the Cameroun government with over 600 deaths recorded in Nigeria communities with property worth billions and trillions of naira destroyed as a result of the heavy flooding. And the minister is keeping quiet.
“As I speak, over 15 kingdoms in Delta State and Palaces have been taken over by flood. Royal fathers are relocating from Kingdoms and their palaces. And yet there is no headway or support from anywhere.
“Is it bags of Rice and noodles that our people are going to depend on? Go to Patani and other communities, traditional palaces have been taken over, and so the call is that the Nigerian Government must go back to the drawing board, discuss with the Cameroon government or sue Cameroon to Court to pay damages. This is genocide. This is not flood, this is genocide. If the water is open to wipe away Nigerians and Nigeria, then we must as a country resist it.”
Vanguard