The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Tinubu to order the immediate publication of the long-withheld forensic audit report on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which allegedly exposes the misappropriation of over N6 trillion and identifies more than 13,000 abandoned projects in the oil-rich region.
In a letter dated July 5, 2025, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the prominent civil society organisation called on President Tinubu to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to investigate and prosecute all those implicated in blocking the report’s release, including top officials and politicians allegedly named in the findings.
SERAP accused the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari of deliberately stalling the report's publication in an effort to shield powerful individuals and politicians from justice.
“The fact that the forensic audit undertaken at public expense has been gathering dust on an official’s desk for several years shows the failure of the Buhari administration to deliver justice for the people of the Niger Delta, who are the primary victims of alleged corruption in the NDDC,” the group said.
Commissioned to probe the NDDC’s operations from 2000 to 2019, the forensic audit reportedly cost Nigerian taxpayers N1.4 billion and allegedly uncovered widespread embezzlement, contract inflation, and diversion of funds.
Among the explosive revelations, the report is said to implicate senior government officials and lawmakers.
It also alleged that the wife of a former minister received a staggering N48 billion over a single year under the pretext of training Niger Delta women.
“Most of the contracts in the NDDC are also allegedly given out to members of the National Assembly,” SERAP noted.
The organisation stressed that the Tinubu administration must now draw a bold line between past complicity and present accountability.
“Obstructing the release of the forensic audit report or hiding it is a grave and wilful attempt to obstruct, prevent and pervert the course of justice for the allegations of corruption in the NDDC,” it warned.
SERAP gave the federal government a seven-day ultimatum to comply with its demands or face legal action at the regional level.
“If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions before the ECOWAS Court of Justice to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest,” the letter cautioned.
Backing its demand with legal precedent, the organisation cited several provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), particularly Article 25, which criminalises interference in corruption investigations, and Article 26, which requires states to impose dissuasive sanctions.
It also referenced Section 15(5) of the Nigerian Constitution, mandating government efforts to eliminate corrupt practices.
SERAP decried the human cost of corruption in the Niger Delta, pointing out that despite the region’s immense oil wealth, its residents continue to suffer from extreme poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and deteriorating public services.
“The missing N6 trillion and over 13,000 abandoned projects in the Niger Delta have continued to have a negative impact on the human rights of Nigerians, undermining their access to basic public goods and services such as education, healthcare, and regular electricity supply,” the group said.
It further noted that public schools and health centres across the region are in shambles, deprived of even the most basic amenities, and that the people’s suffering is deepened by what it called an entrenched culture of impunity.
“Victims of grand corruption in the Niger Delta would lose faith in public investigations of corruption if the audit report is not immediately published and its recommendations acted upon.
“The failure to publish the report and fully implement its recommendations would seem to suggest that the forensic audit was not commissioned to provide transparency and accountability, but merely as a ruse to defer and avoid it, ” the letter stated.
SERAP concluded by urging Tinubu to use the audit report as a tool for real accountability, by exposing those responsible, recovering looted funds, compensating victims, and restoring public trust in the government's anti-corruption efforts.
“The Tinubu administration has a constitutional and moral responsibility to make the report public, name and shame the perpetrators, recover looted funds, and ensure adequate compensation to the victims of this large-scale corruption,” the letter concluded.
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