By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA- A Civil Society Organisation, Niger Delta Youth For Change/Anti-Corruption, NDYCA, yesterday, urged the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate a Senator (name witheld), over alleged N3bn fraud by abandoning a shoreline protection contract in Koko Community of Delta State.

EFCC operatives

This was stated by the National Coordinator, NDYCA, Prince Crispus Amarabhi, at a media conference held in Abuja, after leading a group of protesters to summit a petition on the matter to EFCC including that of a dud cheque of N200 million allegedly issued by the accused Senator to a sub-contractor, as an offshoot of the said contract.

Amarabhi who expressed hope in the fight against corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari, said the lives of thousands of Koko residents cannot be endangered by abandoning a critical project such as shoreline protection, and called for proper investigation of the matter.

He said: “We are members of the Niger Delta Youths for Change/Anti-Corruption. We have submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, bordering on a dud cheque in the sum of N200 million issued by a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, of which case the Nigerian Police and specifically the office of the Inspector General of Police have failed to act on.

“It may interest you to know that the said dud cheque is an offshoot of a contract awarded to the Senator’s company for shore line protection of Koko community in Delta state, which he has been paid over N3 billion and which the contract was quickly abandoned after collecting the said N3 billion from Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, consequent upon the said Koko community is now monumentally threatened by the rising tide of the ocean.”

According to him two years ago they submitted a petition to the EFCC on the matter, which a committee of enquiry was created by the EFCC to investigate the project, they went to Koko community for inspection, but the matter was not concluded logically.

He added that the matter should not be swept under the carpet as “Nobody was above the law. The accused must be prosecuted for abandoning the contract and issuing a dud cheque”, he said.

Meanwhile, despite efforts made through phone calls and text messages to reach the accused Senator over the allegations leveled against him to get his side of the matter proved abortive.