Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, says he
did not get any N300 million fence construction contract from the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC).
Speaking with reporters after he appeared before an ad hoc
panel of the senate on Friday, Akpabio said the contracts were never approved.
The panel is probing the alleged mismanagement of N40
billion by the interim management committee (IMC) of the commission.
In June, Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the senate committee
on NDDC, said Akpabio got a N300 million contract for the fencing of Federal
Polytechnic Ukana, Akwa Ibom, (N200 million), and Federal Government College,
Ikot Ekpene (N100 million).
The decision to probe the commission’s interim management
sparked allegations and counter-allegations.
The minister said his request Nwaoboshi leaked to the media
was not an approval and that he has never been a contractor for the NDDC.
“Maybe when I was in the senate… that thing is dated 2017… I
must have made a recommendation that they should consider these (projects) but
they were not considered,” he said.
“Those jobs were not paid, not one naira was paid and when
you make recommendation it is not that you are being given a contract. It is
that if there is a job in your constituency when they are going through ‘due
process’ they will advertise that job and that will awarded to the one that
wins the bid.
“It is not that when a senator makes a suggestion to an
agency – whether it is NEMA, NDDC – that the senator will automatically become
the contractor. For the fact that the paper was written on the minority leader
letter-headed paper shows that it was not an award of contract.
“Award of contract would have been on an NDDC paper so when
I saw it, I didn’t think it was worth responding to and as minister of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, I owe the nation but good service.
“It was not worth responding to, it was total falsehood. I
have been a contractor at NDDC. Even if the suggested projects were N300
million or N500 million were accepted, there is no guarantee that I or my
nominee would have been a contractor.”
Akpabio said N40 billion is not missing from the coffers of
the commission and that a backlog of contracts are being paid for.
“On the issue of missing N40 billion, I came to honour my
colleagues, I would be a senator forever, they have the right to look into
issues when they are raised,” the minister said.
“It is not that money was missing, the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) harbours the accounts of the NDDC, so we can’t take out N40
billion without it being known.
“When you inherit a commission, you inherit the liabilities
and the assets. They had no option because of garnishee orders, people have
gone to court, some have even died. It couldn’t have come to minister because
the threshold of the management is below N250 million. My job was to come here
and also listen because it will help me to know what they are expending.”
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