By Odita Sunday
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has commended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for recovering more than N115 billion and $84 million in outstanding statutory levies owed the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by oil companies.
HURIWA described the recovery as a significant development in efforts to ensure that revenues meant for the development of the Niger Delta are not lost through corporate non-compliance, administrative negligence or deliberate evasion of statutory obligations.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko, on Sunday, the organisation said the disclosure by the EFCC before the Senate Public Accounts Committee was an important step towards strengthening accountability in the management of NDDC revenues and the wider extractive sector.
The group also commended the Senate Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo, for sustaining its investigation into the 2021–2023 Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Oil and Gas Industry Audit Reports and demanding explanations from companies whose financial obligations remained unresolved.
HURIWA said the EFCC’s investigation of 43 oil companies, which established outstanding liabilities against 24 of them, demonstrated the importance of translating audit findings into concrete recovery and enforcement actions.
According to the disclosure before the Senate, 24 companies operating in the Niger Delta were initially found to have outstanding liabilities of N76.88 billion and $81.08 million, while 19 companies were cleared after investigation.
The EFCC further disclosed that some companies subsequently paid N6.71 billion and $16.99 million directly to the NDDC, while the commission released N73.37 billion and $67.07 million in recovered funds to the development commission.
HURIWA, however, said the recoveries should not merely be celebrated as financial achievements but should prompt a deeper investigation into why such huge statutory obligations were allowed to remain outstanding.
The organisation stressed that every naira and dollar recovered for the NDDC carries a responsibility to the people of the Niger Delta, a region it said has endured decades of environmental degradation, inadequate infrastructure, unemployment, poverty and social dislocation associated with oil and gas exploration.
It warned that recovered funds must not be lost to inflated contracts, abandoned projects, politically motivated procurement or questionable expenditure.
“Recovering NDDC money from oil companies is only half of the job. The bigger responsibility is ensuring that the recovered funds are deployed transparently for the benefit of the people for whom the NDDC was established,” HURIWA said.
The group added that the people of the Niger Delta had seen budgets, contracts and project announcements for decades and were now demanding tangible development, including functional roads, hospitals, schools, water projects, employment opportunities and sustainable infrastructure.
“Every naira recovered by the EFCC must therefore be treated as money belonging to the people, not as a fresh opportunity for political contractors and bureaucrats to enrich themselves,” it said.
HURIWA challenged the EFCC to extend its enforcement activities beyond oil companies that failed to remit statutory levies and investigate failed, fraudulent and abandoned NDDC projects and contractors.
The organisation urged the anti-graft agency to investigate contractors who collected substantial mobilisation payments for NDDC projects but failed to execute the contracts, abandoned projects after receiving public funds or delivered projects that did not correspond with the amounts paid.
It alleged that several NDDC projects had existed for years in government documents and budget papers without corresponding evidence of completion on the ground.
HURIWA called for the arrest, investigation and prosecution of contractors and public officials found culpable, irrespective of their political connections or status.
“EFCC should not stop at recovering money from oil companies. The agency must follow the money into the NDDC project chain,” the group said.
It demanded answers to questions over who received billions of naira for uncompleted roads, schools and water projects, and who certified allegedly abandoned projects as completed.
“Where evidence establishes criminal wrongdoing, the appropriate response should not be another committee or another report. It should be arrest, prosecution and recovery of the proceeds of crime,” HURIWA said.
The organisation said prosecuting failed contractors would send a strong message that public contracts could not be used as private wealth-creation schemes.
It also called for closer scrutiny of procurement processes, contract variations, mobilisation payments, completion certificates and payments made for subsequently abandoned projects.
HURIWA commended the Senate Public Accounts Committee for requiring chief executives of oil companies to appear before it where necessary to respond to queries arising from the NEITI audit reports.
The group, however, warned that legislative oversight would have little impact if investigations ended with public hearings, media reports and voluminous documents without corresponding enforcement and recovery.
It urged the committee to pursue every unresolved financial query to its logical conclusion and recommend appropriate sanctions where violations are established.
The organisation also called on government agencies responsible for collecting statutory revenues to strengthen systems for tracking remittances and identifying defaulters before outstanding obligations accumulate into billions of naira and millions of dollars.
HURIWA also endorsed the admonition by EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede to Nigerian youths against internet fraud, get-rich-quick schemes, peer pressure and the pursuit of wealth without legitimate effort.
The organisation said the warning was timely amid growing social pressure on young Nigerians to acquire expensive cars, maintain extravagant lifestyles and display sudden wealth without regard to the source of such wealth.
HURIWA said Olukoyede’s warning that fraudulent wealth could lead to arrest, prosecution, imprisonment and asset forfeiture should be taken seriously by young Nigerians.
The group endorsed the EFCC chairman’s position that success without process rarely lasts, urging youths to build wealth through knowledge, innovation, discipline, enterprise and legitimate work.
“Olukoyede’s admonition is a timely intervention in a society where material success is sometimes celebrated without questions about its source,” HURIWA said.
It urged young Nigerians to reject internet fraud and deploy technology towards innovation, entrepreneurship, skills acquisition and legitimate wealth creation.
HURIWA said the recovery of NDDC funds and the campaign against cybercrime among youths represented two sides of the same national challenge: protecting public resources while safeguarding the future of young Nigerians.
The organisation called for stronger collaboration among the EFCC, NDDC, NEITI, National Assembly and other relevant institutions to ensure that recovered funds were properly accounted for and deployed to measurable development projects.
It also urged the NDDC to publish details of recovered funds received from the EFCC and provide Nigerians with information on how the resources are subsequently utilised.
HURIWA further called for a comprehensive investigation into major revenue leakages affecting the NDDC and insisted that no individual, company, contractor or public official found culpable should be shielded.
“Corruption has no political party, ethnic group or geographical address. The law must follow the evidence,” the organisation said.
It urged the EFCC to remain professional and fearless by recovering public funds, identifying those responsible, arresting and prosecuting suspects where evidence supports such action, and recovering proceeds of crime.
HURIWA said the Niger Delta deserved more than another cycle of investigations and promises, stressing that recovered NDDC funds must translate into visible development, failed contractors must face justice, oil companies must fulfil their statutory obligations and public officials entrusted with NDDC resources must be held accountable.
“The people of the Niger Delta have paid an enormous price for Nigeria’s oil wealth. They deserve to see the benefits of the resources extracted from their communities,” HURIWA said.
The organisation therefore commended the EFCC for the recoveries, endorsed the EFCC chairman’s warning to youths against cybercrime and urged relevant agencies to sustain the momentum until every recoverable public fund is recovered and every person found culpable is made to face the law.
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