A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Timi Frank, has called on anti-graft agencies to investigate past heads of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

This is as he congratulated the newly inaugurated management of the NDDC, led by Lauretta Onochie as Chairman and Samuel Ogbuku as Managing Director.

He also urged the new NDDC management board to prioritise the interest and development of the region.

Frank, also an Ambassador to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (East Africa and the Middle East), in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to urgently investigate the tenure of the immediate past sole administrator of the agency Effiong Akwa and that of its last acting Managing Director, Emmanuel Audu-Ohwavborua over alleged contract deals.

He demanded that the new management make public the report of the forensic audit of the NDDC carried out last year “for accountability, transparency, and to set the tone for good corporate governance and zero tolerance for corruption under their watch.”

The activist, however, reminded the board that the NDDC should not be construed as an appendage of the APC but as a special-purpose vehicle meant to ameliorate the sufferings of the people of the region for many years.

Frank said, “I congratulate the new board and urge them to distance themselves from the predisposition of past leadership of the agency that turned the commission into a cesspool of corruption and rendered it comatose.

“By making public the report, findings, and recommendations of the agency’s forensic audit conducted last year, the new board must demonstrate a clean break from the agency’s shady past.”

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