Kachikwu told the monarchs who visited him in Abuja that he went round the creeks and found no infrastructure that reflects the money disbursed to the region through the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or the 13 per cent derivation from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee,FAAC,the Nation reports.
The traditional rulers had in their joint presentation read by Bolowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Chief Wellington O. Okrika, demanded a Federal Government dialogue team. This, they said, will give them confidence in the peace moves in the Niger Delta.
The group demanded the release of the 10 “innocent” school children arrested by the army on May 28 in Oporoza and others on “trumped up charges”.
The monarchs demanded for the return of the Golden Sword, the symbol of authority of the Gbaramatu traditional institution, and the three traditional council speed boats in the army’s custody. They also demanded for cessation of hostilities perpetuated by the military in the Niger Delta.
The traditional rulers requested the government to make a categorical statement about the opening of the Maritime University-Okerenkoko, Delta State for academic activities in the 2016/2017 session.
Kachikwu requested the stakeholders to embark on soul searching on the roles of traditional rulers, indigenes of the region and others in the application of the $40billion in 10 years.
According to him, the Federal Government is interested in releasing money for the development of the Niger Delta, if governance and transparency are addressed.
He told his guests that unless the issue of transparency in the management of funds is solved before further release of cash, there will be no result.
His words: “If you look at the amount of money that has been out into the Niger Delta over the last 10 years, in papers it is over $40billion. These have come from NDDC; it has come from derivation, it has come from oil companies’ investments.
“Over $40billion, but as I go to the creek, I see no single infrastructure that you can point to to say this is the result for these investments. So what it means is that we must begin to do some soul searching ourselves: where did all this money go to. Who to them, what where they applied for ? What were the roles of our own people and others no necessary from the Niger Delta and how this money was applied .
The minister said having seen the demands of the traditional rulers, there must be a developmental process agreement for the Niger Delta community that could be sustainable and to which the government can release money.
He told the monarchs that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to the engagement of the Niger Delta people but he is always looking for data on what happened in the past to know the fundamentals that are necessary for a solution.
