The Coalition against Corruption and electoral offences and malpractices. (CCEOM) has tackled what it called concoction of blatant lies, raising false alarm on corrupt practices within the leadership of the North East Development Commission (NEDC).
The group explained that all allegations against the Managing Director North East Development Commission NEDC are concoction of lies , envy and mischievious
The National Coordinator of the Coalition, Honourable Lawan Abdullahi flanked by Executives of the Association stated this when they addressed a Press Conference in Bauchi on Monday.
He said that, “this falsehood allegations against the managing Director NEDC is being perpetrated is an indication of a ploy to misinform the public in a bid to distract the Board or to cause confusion due to envy and mischief.”
According to him, “All these mischievious allegations and blatant lies as nothing can be farther from the truth. Even though we dont want to join issues with anybody, we are, therefore, constrained to respond to the false story about an imaginary allegations of curruption against Alkali.”
The group added that, “We urged members of the public to disregard the story which is obviously a mischievous concoction of lies designed to sow seeds of discord among members of the Board who are united in their resolve to make a difference in the North Eastern State.”
Abdullahi further described the naysayers as enemies of North East making false allegations to distract Alkali from consolidating on the good works he has started by repositioning the region, changing the narratives through execution of physical and non physical laudable projects and different interventions to bring succour to the people of the north east region.
He also said that the unwarranted attack on Alkali and the false threat by the faceless group was mischievous and based on hatred, malice, envy and ignorance.
He also said that the people behind the statement were feigning ignorance on how the commission operate in order to sway unsuspecting public to their ploy to cause a crisis.
“Out of hatred and ignorance, the group tried and want to blackmail the respected distinguished Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima who is always working day and night to ensure the success of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu renewed hope initiatives,” he added.
The Coordinator further said that the petitioners from their false allegations proved that they don’t know the procedures of removing money from government coppers and the limit of the amount of money the MD will approve and any amount above the limit of the MD will be approved by higher authorities.
According to him, “we wish to appreciate President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim.Shettima for their support to the board. We are proud of Alkali; he has a humble political pedigree, sagacity, and versatility in all fields of human endeavour.”
He stressed that, “We outrightly condemn the sponsors of the false and imaginary write up, we are sad that these self-centered faceless group did not see anything good in the physical of hundreds of developmental projects being executed by Alkali which was spread a cross the 112 local government areas of the six states in the subregion, but chose to malign and cast aspersions on the managing director its a shame and unfortunate.
“Consequently, we urge relevant respected citizens to ignore all forms of unholy antagonism against Alkali, we called on the security agencies to unravel this faceless group trying to sow a seed of discord in the country and to bring them to justice,” he added.
He said that the Vice President did not and will never ask for a withdrawal of kobo from NEDC or anywhere in Nigeria, the allegations are nothing but mischief paddling and falsehood.”
According to him, “After a thorough investigations by our group,from.our findings, It seems the petitioners doesn’t know what they are talking about or they don’t know that the Commission was created by law and there are laws guiding their operations including procurement laws , withdrawal of funds for projects which from our findings Alkali followed it strictly.
“All the allegatioons are fiction, malicious and imaginations of the petitioners to achieve their selfish aim of blackmailing the Commission through cheap publicity.”
He said that, “The writers were ignorant on how government agencies operates, they don’t know that all government agencies, ministries and departments have edicts that guide their establishment, including the mandate giving to them and clear guidelines on how they operate.
“And they don’t know rules and regulations guiding their activities, and operations, they have the appropriate place to report all their activities, not to the unidentified agencies, but If they can walk on to the commission and seek to know the information about the project they will know the position of everything once they agree to listen to them.
“Let the petitioners allow NEDC to develop the region. It is unfortunate some people want to bring the commission down with false claims and false accusations and these people are not from the region even from their names.”
Abdullahi said that “Pastor Dr Sani Abdullahi and Reverend Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa are well known for blackmailing respected Nigerians, whenever they look for something they didn’t get, they result to cheap blackmail.”
According to him, “It is on record that in 2015, they did same allegations to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and some state Governments. We want Nigerians to know them as habitual blackmailers, unpatriotic citizens who are bent on promoting hatred, fracas and disunity among the citizenry”.
He advised the security agencies to be aware of them as trouble makers who want to forment trouble and cause fracas and disunity in the country.
He concluded that, “We are appealing to the Inspector General of Police to arrest the two trouble makers and their cohorts who are agent of trouble makers and bring them to justice.”
The group explained that all the allegations against the Managing Director of the NEDC are concoction of lies, envy and mischieve.
Recall that, recently The Coalition of Civil Society Organisation against Corruption in Northern Nigeria (COCSOCINN), has petitioned President Bola Tinubu over alleged N13billion corruption levelled against the Managing Director of the Commission.
The Coalition stated this in a petition signed by its National Spokesperson, Pastor Dr. Sani Abdullahi entitled, “Urgent Petition for Dismissal of the Managing Director of NEDC and Advocacy March on June 4, 2024” dated May 23, 2024.
The Coalition called for the immediate sack and prosecution of of Alkali as copies of the petition were sent to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
“This petition seeks your immediate dismissal as the Managing Director of the NEDC due to serious allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and direct threats to the life of one of our members Reverend Kallamu Musa Ali Dikwa of Center for Justice on Religious Ethnicity Nigeria.
“As a whistleblower and an advocate for justice, Rev Dikwa had uncovered substantial evidence indicating that the Vice President, with the assistance of the Managing Director, illicitly withdrew N13billion from the NEDC as alleged
