Minister of Niger Delta Affairs,
Senator Godswill Akpabio, has finally taken up the challenge thrown at him by
the National Assembly to name lawmakers who got contracts from the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC).
Akpabio had on Monday, while
appearing before the House Committee on the NDDC during an investigative
hearing on the alleged illegal spending and mismanagement of funds, alleged
that members of the National Assembly were awarded 60 percent of contracts by
the commission.
House of Representatives Speaker,
Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, however, gave Akpabio a 48-hour ultimatum to identify
the lawmakers.
Akpabio initially recanted,
denying he said National Assembly members were awarded 60 percent of NDDC
contracts.
However, at the weekend, the
minister responded to the threat, listing the contractor lawmakers in a
document titled “Some Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Contracts
Allegedly Given to some Members of the National Assembly – Senate and House of
Representatives.”
The list, however, contained the
names of four senators as receiving 74 contracts from the commission between
2017 to date.
Top of the list was the Chairman
of the Senate Committee on NDDC, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi.
He was listed to have executed 53
NDDC projects from 2017 till date.
The contracts listed against
Nwaoboshi’s name included Emergency Repairs of Asue Street, Owa Phase 2;
Emergency Repairs of ldumuogbe Road via Ojemaye; Emergency Repairs of Otolokpo
College Road, Otolokpo; and Emergency Repairs of Police lshu Ani Ukwu Road,
Issele Uku in Delta State.
They also included Emergency
Repairs of old Sapele Agbor Road, Obiaruku; Emergency Repairs of Ehwerhe Obada
Road Agbarho Road; Emergency Repairs of Hon. Ifeanyi Eboigbe Street, Boji Boji
Owa/Goodwill Street, Owa Alero; and Emergency Repairs of Ahiama Okwu to Obuocha
Okwu among others, all in Delta State.
However, Nwaoboshi quickly
reacted to the list by describing Akpabio as a confused individual.
Nwaoboshi challenged Akpabio to
publish the names of the directors and shareholders of the companies that
executed the said 53 NDDC contracts.
Akpabio also accused the Chairman
of the House Committee on NDDC, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, of inserting 19
contracts worth N9 billion into 2019 NDDC budget.
The minister revealed that “in
the 2019 budget, the Executive Director in charge of projects forwarded to me
the attached list of 19 Nos. old contracts amounting to almost N9billion after
tax, that the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on NDDC, Honourable
Tunji-Ojo, insisted that the IMC of NDDC must pay before 2019 budget details
could be released to the commission.”
In the letter addressed to the
House speaker routed through the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Akpabio
further stated, inter alia: “It has always been known that the two chairmen of
the committees on NDDC in both chambers yearly exhibit unusual influence to the
exclusion of committee members and even the management of the NDDC in
appropriating funds to details embellished in the budget after the passage of
line items at the plenaries.
“To show you some typical
examples, herewith attached are documents showing nature of contracts amount of
such contracts (in some cases), date of awards and beneficiaries. Some were
awarded to the two chairmen of both committees in the House of Representatives
and the Senate, respectively, serving at the period of the awards (Annexure
‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’). However, due to the 48 hours’ notice, the forensic auditors
could not sift through the thousands of files in their possession to provide
more.
He stated: “The investigating
Committee on NDDC refused and/or neglected to give me the opportunity to
explain that reference to most NDDC contracts yearly being awarded since 2001
from the records allegedly to members of the National Assembly in both Chambers
were done without the knowledge of the alleged beneficiaries.
“However, the two Chairmen of the
Committees in both Chambers had adequate knowledge;
“I never referred to members of
the 9th National Assembly as beneficiaries of NDDC contracts as NDDC is yet to
fully implement any NDDC budget since the commencement of the 9th National
Assembly. In fact, the 2019 budget passed in February and harmonised between
the 4th and 5th of March 2020 was received by the commission in the middle of
April 2020, when same was designated to expire on the 31st of May, 2020.
“However, it is pertinent to
point out that the Clerk of the National Assembly forwarded a letter Ref.
NASS/CNA/115/VOL.38/1175, dated March 20, 2020, without attaching the budget
details indicating that the 2020 budget of the NDDC passed into Law was being
forwarded (copy of the letter is attached as Annexure ‘A’). This anomaly was
brought to the attention of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee investigating a
purported financial recklessness by the management of the commission in July
2020, though the first outcry was on allegation of missing N40bn which was
totally untrue.”
Rising in his own defence,
Tunji-Ojo described the Akpabio’s allegation as spurious and diversionary.
He insisted that the allegation
made by NDDC was a ploy to divert the attention of Nigerians from the real
issue, which has to do with the mismanagement of NDDC resources by the Interim
Management Committee (IMC) from January to date.
The committee chairman denied
padding the budget and even challenged the IMC to provide evidence to back the
claims.
Akpabio also accused three other
senators Matthew Urhoghide, James Manager, and Sam Anyanwu as NDDC contractors.
He stated that Urhoghide was
awarded six projects, James was given six as well while Sam Anyanwu was awarded
a total of 21 NDDC contracts during the period under review.
Other lawmakers that Akpabio
listed projects against were simply identified as Ondo and Edo representatives
while the project cost was not supplied by the minister.
Akpabio also listed one Mutu’s
name against 74 projects which included various emergency road projects in
Delta, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, and the Rivers States.
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