Comrade Agberen Calls On Activists, CSOs In Delta To Shift Attention From Police To State Government

By Daniel Dafe

A Deltan and civil rights Activist, Comr.(Amb) Derrick Oritsematosan Agberen has called on Civil Society Organizations (Activists) and other Anti-Corruption Agencies in Delta State to concentrate more on the State Government rather than giving too much attention to the Nigerian Police Force.

Agberen made the call in a Facebook post on Thursday.

Comrade Agberen who made the call to activists in the state said that there are helplines to assist members of the public to reporting misconducts, extortions and police brutalities among men of the Nigerian Police Force.

“Therefore, members of the civil society space/groups should pay more attention to what happens in the State Government,” he said.

Furthermore, he alleged that there has been a lot of corrupt practices, misappropriations and mismanagement of public funds by government officials in various sectors of the state government for years which he said has affected the progress of the oil rich state.

In his words, “we employ too much energy in engaging the Nigerian Police who aren’t the problems of governance but are products of bad governance.”

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Comrade Agberen said that “Civil society organizations and other anti-corruption groups in Delta State, should shift attention from the Nigeria Police Force and focus more on the Delta State Government.”

He said that it is high time we started scrutinising the financial expenditures of the state government to ensure that it is used judiciously.

He continued: “Revenues keep doubling month after month and our focus should be more on the state Governor and Local Government Chairmen to see what they do with her resources entrusted to them. Despite these revenues and allocations to her dear state, corruption has stunted development with the level of little or no projects in the state as projects so far executed in the state by the previous and current government had not allegedly justified the amount of money that had accrued to the state from the derivation funds. As a people, we cannot even boast of a sustained annual or yearly project that has affected the lives of the people positively. No quality roads, no lights, no industries, no reliable healthcare system, her educational system so poor, yet we’ve seen previous governments engage in borrowing of monies that cannot be accounted for and the debts incurred on the people.”

Comrade Agberen said that “Deltans cannot afford to have another government borrowing so much without the people’s consent but for personal gains, whilst the government cannot account for statutory allocations, value added tax, 13% oil derivation from months in and out.”

“I, therefore urge all civil groups and organizations in Delta State, to come out, interact, tackle and engage the State Government to ensure that monies are judiciously used and accounted for. We should and must speak out,” he concluded.