Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia
The Senate Committe on the South East Development Commission (SEDC) has been urged to give the management of the development agency a breathing space to execute its mandate effectively.
Leader of a socio-political organisation, the Igbo Agenda, Chief Chekwas Okorie, made the appeal Wednesday at a press conference in Enugu, saying that “it is too early” to start making unfounded allegations against the management.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on SEDC, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu had last week alleged that the SEDC management led by Mark Okoye had engaged in frivolous spending of funds meant for development projects.
He cited alleged renting of one room office at Abuja for N153 million and awarding of irrelevant and wasteful contracts to consultants.
But Okorie, who said he was speaking as a concerned Igbo elder, upbraided the members of the Senate Committee on SEDC for putting up “a public show as part of its oversight function of the Commission”.
He said that he “watched the show thoroughly bewildered and alarmed”, adding that his own investigation showed that “the so-called one room office space was indeed a furnished and equipped office complex in Maitama, Abuja.
Okorie also stated that there was nothing wrong if the Commission found it necessary to award contracts to consultants in order to do the necessary groundworks before embarking on any project.
He argued that “it is common knowledge that necessary studies must be conducted by experts or consultants in specific areas of interest if the Commission must approach investors or financial institutions both in Nigeria and abroad for investment in the Southeast geopolitical zone”.
According to him, it was obvious the Committee was “in a haste” to scandalise the SEDC management, hence it didn’t bother to do its investigation before coming out to stage a public show.
Referencing the hitherto sordid affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Okorie appealed to politicians to allow the SEDC to focus on its core mandate and succeed for the overall interest of the long-suffering people of the Southeast zone.
He noted that the SEDC management had after inauguration taken “a necessary first step towards a strategic synergy in forging coordinated and collaborative efforts in developing the zone by carrying the Southeast governors along.
Okorie, who expressed his desire to see SEDC succeed, said that he was impressed with the foresight and commitment of the leadership, citing the blueprint and road map presented by the CEO, Okoye, which received presidential approval.
He commended the young management of SEDC for looking beyond federal allocations to seek funds to carry out its mandate, adding, “I think they are on the right track”.
Okorie recalled that in the 2025 financial year the SEDC received nothing out of the N140 billion allocated to it, yet the Senate Committee didn’t find it necessary to complain that the Commission was being starved of funds.
However, he noted the situation changed 2026 appropriation when SEDC was allocated N150 billion out of which N16 billion has been released so far, thereby attracting the attention of the Committee members.
He said: “I am always for accountability and transparency in the management of public funds but I am of the opinion that what the Senate Committee did to the management of the Commission in less than six months of its receipt of about six percent of its 2025/2026 budgetary allocation appropriated by the National Assembly is in bad taste.
“I believe that the Senate Committee acted in a haste. The action of the Committee is more of an inquisition and coercion than an oversight”.
The veteran politician urged the Committee to be “more diligent and discreet in its future oversight” of the SEDC, adding that it was too early in the day to start making outlandish allegations against the management which is barely six months.
He lauded President Bola Tinubu again for taking “a bold step” in establishing the SEDC with specific mandate to remedy the infrastructural damages suffered by the Southeast region as a result of the civil war.
