Former Acting Managing Director of Interim Management
Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Joy Nunieh has made some
damning allegations against the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator
Godswill Akpabio.
The former Acting MD addressed the press after she appeared
before the Senate ad hoc Committee investigating NDDC.
Nunieh in the interview recounted her alleged ordeal in the
hands of Akpabio before she was removed as the NDDC MD.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had in February 2020
reorganized the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC), replacing Barrister Joy Nunieh with Professor Kemebradikumo
Pondei, as Acting Managing Director.
Buhari also approved the enlargement of the IMC from three
to five.
She said “Nobody makes any payment in NDDC without Godswill
Akpabio’s approval. When we first came, on the day of the inauguration, he said
to me in the car, ‘Madam MD, if you don’t do what I say, the same pen with
which I used to sign your paper is the same pen I’ll use to remove you.
“He said the first thing I should do when I get to Port
Harcourt is to change the dollars in the NDDC account. I was scared to do that
and he claimed that I have a poverty mentality that I’m afraid of money. All of
you knew that he accused me of refusing to spend money. It is strange today,
it’s about money.
“After that, he came to Port Harcourt two days after the
inauguration and told me that the first thing I should do was to change the
dollars.
The former Acting MD further accused Akpabio of pressuring
her to take the oath of loyalty, but she resisted
“He told me to take an oath. Though he denied that, he told
me, three times until we had a reconciliation at the Villa in the office of Mr.
Abba who is the S.A. to the President on domestics.
“In that meeting was Alhaji Maikano and he said the only
condition is when I take the oath and I didn’t take the oath and will never
take it.
“After that, he said, he was going to remove me and he
started the campaign of calumny against me. I didn’t even answer him because
the fact will speak for itself.
“I refuse to go with him to the FEC meeting to deceive Mr.
President and the reason is because the law says if I contravene a section of
the procurement Act, it’s five years imprisonment without an option of fine.
“So if I had gone with him to deceive Mr. President I would
have been in trouble because they said it’s the 2020 budget, but Akpabio went
and got approval when the budget was not ready.
“One of the issues raised against me was that I awarded
contracts without them knowing about it. Am sure that is what they told you
people yesterday.
“Apparently, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh never sits in the office, so
he never knows the workings and the bureaucracy of payments in the office.
“One, I am just a viewer of a platform that made payments in
NDDC. There are different steps to take before payments are made in NDDC. One,
there is the issue of Lassa fever which obviously they didn’t carry that one
along.
“Nobody makes payments in NDDC without Godswill Akpabio’s
consent.
He said I remove Mr. Katulgo from the legal department and
send him on compulsory retirement and he said we cannot have a northerner as
head of the legal unit.
“I said, I cannot do that. I do not have the powers because
I am just an IMC. It’s a criminal offense, and against public service rules for
me to do that. He said I should repost all other directors that refused to take
his instruction during my predecessor’s time, that is the person who was there
before I came.
“So, he came and asked me to draft a letter on my letterhead
implicating Senator Peter Nwaoboshi for collecting contracts in NDDC. I told
him that I will not do that. I am a lawyer and who alleges must prove. He said
Senator Nwaoboshi is giving us trouble and besides he didn’t recognize the IMC.
I said I will not do that letter. He said I was ungrateful and I refused to do
that letter.
“Dr. Cairo now said he will do the letter. He said if
Akpabio asked him to kill, he would kill and I said, for me, I will not do
that. At that place, there was one Mr. Etiebet who was the only NDDC staff that
was present at that meeting. He now asked Dr. Cairo to go and send for
letterheads from the office.
“They now went and sent for the letterheads, Dr, Cairo now
did a letter which I want to tender at the Ad-hoc Committee before I came late
alleging that Senator Nwaoboshi had contracts and I said if I signed any document
from me seen by Mr. President, he will believe. So I will only write that the
EDP knows about it.
“The next thing he told me is that I should make sure these
people leave the procurement. Before I came when he and Festus Keyamo became
Ministers, in their first meeting, they awarded 30 contracts of water
hyacinths.”
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