NDDC scam: Bayelsa youths back EFCC, want Jonathan’s aide imprisoned

Over 1,000 youths elders on Tuesday took to the streets in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, to support the recent arrest and prosecution of a former top official of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), George Turnah.
The embattled legal practitioner was accused of fraudulently enriching ‎himself while he served as Special Adviser to two Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of the NDDC between 2012 and 2015.
The youths who carried placards with various inscriptions commended the Economic and Financial Crimes ‎(EFCC) for his arrest.
The groups lamented that they were shocked to hear the revelation of how he shortchanged them during the period.
According to them, the painful part of Turnah’s callousness was the Niger Delta Volunteer Program which was designed to empower 2,000 youths of the region for four years with a monthly stipend of one hundred and fifty thousand naira but he choosed to pay them seventy thousand naira.
They accused former President Goodluck Jonathan‎ of giving Turnah the audacity to operate in an agency as sensitive as the NDDC without being checkmated, leading to his involvement in the monumental fraud.
Their protest is coming on the heels of a similar accusation leveled against Jonathan by ‎Chief Perekeme Richard Kpodoh, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former security adviser to the Bayelsa State Government.
Kpodoh who was also part of the protest had last weekend, lampooned those who were celebrating what he described as six wasted years‎ of the Jonathan presidency, saying it is insulting and smacks of ignorance.
The APC leader had maintained that Jonathan failed to attract meaningful project to the region but watched with excitement as his aides, mainly from Bayelsa fretted the nation’s commonwealth through dubious and phantom projects.m
One of the leader of the protesters, Harold Zoukumor while addressing the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Amba Asuqo said as concern indigenes of the region they are completely in solidarity with the EFCC for justice to prevail in the matter.
He said “We have seen and read in the media, the recent arrest and detention of Mr. George Turnah. It is our desire that all said funds recovered from him be returned to the youths of the region for further development of their capacity as well as enhance the living standard of the people.
“His action was a clear case of fraud which has impoverished the ordinary people especially the youths more‎. So we insist that the loot must be returned to either the NDDC or any agency to be disbursed to the youths because it is our money and we appeal to you to use your good office to work in line with our request.”
In his response, the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police ‎thanked them for the peaceful way they conducted themselves and assured them that their letter will get to the right place.
Turnah is now standing trial before Justice Ibrahim Watilat of the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on a 12-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence, money laundering and abuse of office.
Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Against Corruption ( NDAC) has commended its members who took part in a peaceful protest on Tuesday to support the arrest and detention of George Turnah, the godson of former President Goodluck Jonathan by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The group in a statement signed by its Coordinator, Larry Wanemi, explained that they decided to show solidarity by joining the protest because of their stand against corruption and corrupt people.
Wanemi said they have no apology to give to anyone for their role and informed that they will attend all the court sittings of the case until judgment is served.
He described Turnah as one of the greatest enemies of the Ijaw nation and one of those who is responsible for the underdevelopment of Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta within the last six years‎.
The NDAC leader queried the silence of Jonathan in the face of the massive fraud, pointing out that the former president cannot claim that he was not aware of the flamboyant life Turnah was living and even the multi-billion naira ‎ Kolo mansion he built in Ogbia which has now be forfeited.
The statement reads: “We are always quick to accuse those outside our region of responsible for our present predicament but here we are, a young man saddle with such opportunity decided to misplace it by enriching himself, buying cars, building mansions and so on.
“What baffles us is the fact that his adopted father, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan never called him to order. He kept mute while the young man went about using his name to intimidate people to sign and collect billions of naira for jobs he never executed.
“As a group we call on the EFCC to dig deep into the wealth of Turnah and recover everything they can for the good of our people. There are still so much within and outside this country that he has always boasted of having”.
While appealing to youths of the region to remain calm, Wanemi called on the anti-graft agency to go after others from the region especially in Bayelsa who have misused ‎funds meant for developmental projects.