Again, some officials of the Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission have landed themselves in trouble over their involvement in a N40 million empowerment fund for physically challenged persons in Delta State.
This became public knowledge on Wednesday as pandemonium broke out in the oil-city of Warri as over 200 physically challenged youths stormed the headquarters of the Commission for their N40 million empowerment package that had been allegedly squandered by officials of the commission.
Besides, it came a day after the Delta State Economic Dash Board, through its consultant, Rollande Bergers and Co, probing record books of Ministries in the state in the last four years, uncovered a fraud of N25 billion in DESOPADEC in the last one year.
The disabled persons, in their large number, besieged the gates of the commission in the early hours of the day, hurling stones at the premises.
They said officials of the commission, particularly those in the Administration and Finance Department, had squandered over N35 million out of the about N40 million, budgeted for them.
The protesters said officials only released N5 million to them in December 2012 after obtaining approval for N40 million, which they purportedly cashed but have refused to release.
They indicted the Chairman of the Commission, Oritsua Kpogho, and the Secretary, A.E. Oghoro, of conniving with some officials in the Administration Finance Department of the Commission to rip them off.
The funds have been an annual budgetary allocation to the physically challenged persons.
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