{"id":12193,"date":"2016-11-02T07:56:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T07:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12193"},"modified":"2016-11-02T07:56:14","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T07:56:14","slug":"how-okowa-is-allegedly-killing-desopadec-by-john-oghojafor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=12193","title":{"rendered":"How Okowa Is Allegedly Killing DESOPADEC by John Oghojafor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10393\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec.jpg\" alt=\"desopadec\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec.jpg 225w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec-80x80.jpg 80w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec-40x40.jpg 40w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec-64x64.jpg 64w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>It is no more news that since Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa became the governor of Delta State, not even one new project has been executed by the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) in any of the oil-producing communities in Delta State. First, the Commission\u2019s budget in 2015 was not implemented when Okowa took over as the governor. And then the Commission prepared the 2016 budget which provided for about N28 billion based on the state government budget. As at the time of this report, the 2016 budget is yet to be approved by Gov. Okowa for implementation. For some flimsy reasons, the budget has been going forte and back the Commission and the governor\u2019s office even when it is just barely two months to the end of 2016.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11394&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The most intriguing part of it is that, for the whole of the year, Gov. Okowa is alleged not to have released, en bloc in any month, the 50% of the 13% monthly derivation fund due to the Commission since he came to power. His modus operandi, it was gathered, is to invite the Managing Director of the Commission and a few directors to Asaba and ask from them how much is the monthly salary, how much is required to purchase diesel for generators and in a few cases, how much is imprest. He releases a few hundreds of million of naira for salaries and diesel and thereafter dispatch the MD and his team away. And this has been the way Okowa has been crippling DESOPADEC which is a product of the tortuous agitation of the people of Niger Delta to address the marginalization of oil-producing communities.<br \/>\nIt was gathered that when the 2016 budget of the Commission was passed by the House of Assembly, Okowa called for the copy and gave an instruction that no new project should be embarked upon in all the oil-bearing communities. Instead, according to our source, Okowa ordered that 65% of the budget should be used to pay debts owed by the Commission while the balance 36% be used for recurrent expenditure. But even at that, it was gathered, not a dime has been released by him to settle the outstanding debts owed by the Commission. The implication of this is that while the federal government releases the 13% derivation fund to the state government every month, Okowa has so far refused to release even the paltry 50% of that sum to DESOPADEC to develop the oil-producing communities which the whole derivation fund is meant for. He is eating the chicken even including the feathers.<br \/>\nOur investigation revealed that Gov. Okowa has now diverted DESOPADEC 50% of the fund to the funding of the Asaba Capital Development Commission. This means that while the development of the oil-producing communities in the state is at a standstill, projects are being executed by the Asaba Capital Development Commission with money diverted from DESOPADEC. What an exhibition of wickedness!<br \/>\nRecently, the Host Communities of Oil and Gas (HOSTCOM) led by one Dr. Egedegbe planned a peaceful demonstration to protest the governor\u2019s refusal to release the money due to DESOPADEC for the development of the communities to the Commission. The governor, we gathered, got a wind of the planned protest and invited the executive to Asaba sometime last week. We gathered he waged kola for the HOSTCOM executive with N300,000 and packaged N5 million in an envelope for them to share. The proposed protest died a natural death as the executive left Okowa\u2019s office praising him while he continues killing DESOPADEC instalmentally.<br \/>\nWe could recall that when Okowa was campaigning to become the governor of Delta State in 2014, the opposition kept shouting it loud and clear that Okowa as a governor will kill and bury DESOPADEC but Deltans from Central and South did not listen. That is what we are now suffering. It should be noted that Okowa is not from a recognized oil-producing community yet he calls the bluff on how to squander the money due to oil communities simply because he is the governor of the state. For how long can we bear this?<br \/>\nOkowa started the process of killing of DESOPADEC when he ordered the amendment of DESOPADEC Law 2015 where he inserted in Section 9 of the law that he as the governor must direct, control and supervise the function of the Board of the Commission as it affect application of its fund. And that is what he has been holding on to till now to do whatever he likes with the Commission\u2019s fund including using same to develop Asaba, the state capital while Delta South and Central that play host to oil and gas are left unkempt.<br \/>\nThe Commissioners, directors and others whom Okowa appointed to different offices in DESOPADEC only collect salaries and go to their homes without any new project to show to their host communities yet they cannot complain. They are just suffering and smiling.<br \/>\nFor how long will the oil-producing communities be patient while Okowa keeps plundering the fund due to them? We must shine our eyes now.<br \/>\nAll effort to get the governor to react to these allegations have so proved abortive as he would neither respond to phone calls nor respond to text messages. Also, the Commissioner for Information has failed to respond while the State chairman of HOSTCOM, Dr. Egedegbe would not speak on the matter.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=11394&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is no more news that since Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa became the governor of Delta State, not even one new project has been executed by the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) in any of the oil-producing communities in Delta State. First, the Commission\u2019s budget in 2015 was not implemented when Okowa took [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[429,3216,1555],"class_list":["post-12193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","tag-desopadec","tag-hostcom","tag-ifeanyi-okowa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/desopadec.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-3aF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12194,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12193\/revisions\/12194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}