By Deborah Hassan
365Daily– A group of South-South women have lampooned the Senate for threatening to issue a warrant of arrest against the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio over non-payment of N2.2bn to contractors.
The women said the threatened as a ploy to coerce the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs to toe an odd line and the Federal Government into accepting to pay for inflated, bogus and fictitious past projects.
The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions had summoned Akpabio, and the Sole Administrator of Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr Effiong Akwa, over the matter.
The Committee said it was acting on petitions filed by Akom Survey Services Limited over alleged refusal by the minister and the NDDC administrator to pay for the survey carried out in nine states under the commission, based on a N2.2bn contractual agreement.
‘’This is a threatening measure designed to retard the progress of the region, strip the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) of the transparency qualities it had developed in the last two years and return it to its most corrupt days’’.
They also commended stakeholders in the Niger Delta region for joining hands with Akpabio to lift the region high.
In a statement in Asaba by the spokesperson of the South-South Women Political Front (SSWPF), Dr. Doris Ogba, the women described Akpabio as a transformational figure,towering statesman and a visionary hero.
They commended the former Akwa Ibom State governor for initiating programmes and projects that directly benefited the people in various areas such as security, health, education, roads, housing, electrification, transportation, agriculture and tourism
The well respected women applauded Akpabio for redirecting the region on to the path of development.
‘’Senator Godswill Akpabio is a thoughtful, decent and progressive fellow. His humility is boundless’’.
Particularly, the women scolded political detractors for throwing sand in the gears of the current administration to transform the region, making misleading statements and orchestrating a campaign of calumny against Akpabio, with a view to impugn his integrity.
The statement emphasized Akpabio’s politics of performance, virtue in waiting, deep appetite for change, rapid infrastructure development and peace in the Niger Delta region.
‘’The Wailing Women of the Niger Delta, The Integrity Friends for Truth and Peace Initiative (TIFPI) and others arespoilers’’ the statement added.