As the Senate investigation panel enters the second and final day,on Friday,more revelations have been made about how the sum of N40billion was allegedly misappropriated by the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC under 3 months
The Minister of the Ministry of Niger Delta,Godswill Akpabio who made appearance at the panel, gave account of what he knew about the alleged missing money.
Akpabio told a 7 member Senate panel that he had approved only one project since he became a Minister and that was the Covid-19 relief project.
The former governor said
that no money “is missing’ as the alleged N40billion could not be withdrawn without the permission or acknowledgment of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who is the sole admistrator of the NDDC account.
Akpabio said that there were projects he recommended to be executed when he was a serving Senator 3 years ago and the projects were not considered.
He explained that as much as he wanted those projects to be executed no money was paid for the projects to be executed.He explained that the contractor of the projects was not himself and that the contractor was chosen after a bid was made for the various applicants.
Akpabio said he had no knowledge about any expenditure or gave any approval during the tenure of the last Interim Management Committee.
Akpabio accused the National Assembly members of drastically reducing the Commission’s budget a situation he said limit the operational capacity of the Commission in its core mandate of adressing the problems of the Niger Delta
He said that the solution to the problem of NDDC lied in the outcome of the forensic audit ordered by President Buhari.
However an ugly scenario was captured at the premises of the red chamber where the immediate past acting Managing Director of NDDC Joi Nunieh allegedly accused
Akpabio of asking her to frame Senator Nwaboshi of collecting contracts from the NDDC which she said she declined.
In course of the Senate investigation, the red Chamber discovered that about N81billoon was misappropriated by the NDDC from October 2019 .
The NDDC was established by the Obasanjo government in 2000 with the sole purpose of developing the Niger Delta Communities rich in crude oil resources.
However a critical analysis of the Commission since its establishment 20 years still tell the gory stories of deprivation, poverty,hunger, pollution, unemployment, and lack of infrastructure which neccessitated the setting up of the Commission
The NDDC is in the eye of the storm,being on national spotlight for the wrong reasons as alleged financial recklessness and misappropriation of funds.
With blame and counter blame between NDDC officials on one hand and lawmakers on the other hand, the fate of the deprived people of the Niger Delta unarguablyhangs in the balance
