The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria, COCSON, has refuted the alleged misappropriation of N100 billion of the North East Development Commission
Recall that in July 2020, Minority Leader of the National Assembly, Ndudi Elumelu had alleged that the N100 billion disbursed to the commission was squandered in less than a year.
Mr Elumelu had added that no impact was made on displaced persons or infrastructural development despite such amount of money at the commission’s disposal.
Refuting the allegation, the COCSON President, Ikechukwu Chukwunyere, Vice President Aliyu Abdullahi-Bauchi, and the Secretary General, Olayemi Success in a statement on Friday, described such allegations as unfounded, unnecessary and a total distraction.
The statement reads: “Today we are here to let you know our findings and position on the alleged mismanagement of one hundred billion Naira (#100, 000000000) by the Management of North East Development Commission (NEDC) as alleged by the National Assembly,
“Our findings show that the allegation is unfounded, unnecessary and a total distraction, coincidentally, the report of the National Assembly committee that also investigated the allegation concluded that the allegation is not true,
The group therefore urged Nigerians to disregard Mr Elumelu’s allegation, saying that the public should know that the Management of NEDC under the leadership of Mohammed Goni Alkali is focused and committed to the task of bringing total development of the North East of Nigeria.
“We will like to appeal to the members of the National Assembly to always do due diligence and make sure that allegations levelled against persons or Agencies must have some element of merit before bringing it up at the Chamber, knowing well that discussions at the Chambers are always before the media as some people will only have opportunity to hear the allegations without hearing the findings and that will be dangerous for our collective integrity.
“Finally, we join the National Assembly to call on the Executive to adequately fund the Commission to effectively discharge their responsibilities,” the group noted.
