The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Sam Ogbuku, revealed on Wednesday that the intervention agency is owed over N2 trillion in remittances by the Federal Government.
Ogbuku made this declaration during his appearance before the House of Representatives’ Committee on NDDC, led by Ibori-Suenu Erhiatake.
He explained that this amount comprises 15 percent of the allocation designated for the nine states within the region, pending since 2000.
Despite the passage of the agency’s annual budgets in 2021, 2022, and 2023, the funds have yet to be remitted, as highlighted by Ogbuku.
“I want to raise an important issue. When we talk about funding, the NDDC Act says the monthly allocation from the Federal Government is 15 per cent of the allocation of nine states of the Niger Delta. But I can assure you that since the inception of the NDDC, it has not got that.
“The Federal Government only budgets what it wants to give to the NDDC for that year and they give it that year. If you look at the 15 per cent, we are not getting it. Even with the removal of fuel subsidy and with the increment of state allocation, the NDDC is still where it is. So, these are issues we want you to help us resolve and we have done our calculation that from 2000 to date we can say we are being owed over N2trn from what is supposed to be due NDDC.
“We also came in at a point when the NDDC never had a budget for 2021, 2022 and 2023. These budgets were before the National Assembly and we had to fast-track the passage of those budgets and those budgets were eventually passed in April this year. However, since the budget was passed, it has not been handed over to us up till now. We pray and plead with you to ensure that as fast as possible, you also facilitate the process for us to have the budget because the budget year is already coming to an end,” he said.
