A Niger Delta activist, Chief Jasper F. Jumbo, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to pay up the backlog of allocations due the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) before leaving office.
Jumbo, the Chairman of Niger Delta Projects Consortium, wrote the blueprint for the establishment of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADAC).
According to him, the Federal Government owes the NDDC over N760 billion in accumulated unremitted allocations in the past 14 years.
Jumbo wondered how the commission could fulfil those national exigencies that inspired the federal establishment of the commission without the release of the allocation.
Such development-sapping debts should have been tied to specific projects, such as the completion of the East-West Road, the Yenagoa-Ogbia Road, the Port Harcourt Airport, the Bodo–Bonny Road and the Niger Delta Youths Empowerment schemes.
He called for a forensic and environmental audit of key resources areas, such as Imedi Brass, Southern Ijaw, Suku, Bonny, Egi, Eastern Obolo, Egbema and Owaza.