Joy Nunieh, a former managing director of the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC), says during her time as head of the agency, she
was asked to spend N10 billion on Christmas bonus.
While testifying before the house of representatives
committee on NDDC on Friday via teleconference, Nunieh said rejecting the idea
contributed to her removal from office.
She said if she had agreed, the 10 states under the
commission would have got N1 billion each.
“When I was appointed, I went from office to office; I sat
in their offices and I told them, ‘You people are responsible for what has gone
wrong in the zone’,” she said.
“All the staff have in their wards or local government areas
projects. If every staff of NDDC takes up a project in their local government
area and ensures that they are well done, we will not have these issues.
“Thirdly, the IMC. For the first time in the history of
NDDC, no palliatives were given. I did not give out Christmas palliatives. I
was under pressure to bring N10bn – N1bn per state – but I refused. The youths
were complaining that things were difficult and I said ‘the day I give you this
money, you know I have started collecting your money.’
“I never gave any Christmas bonus or palliative during my
time. For the first time in the history of NDDC, NDDC worked throughout
December. There was no break except on public holidays.”
She also alleged that Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger
Delta affairs, hijacked the forensic audit of the commission ordered by
President Muhammadu Buhari.
“He (Akpabio) said the first thing I would do is to write a
letter to him and he gave me the draft, that I should put it on my letterhead.
In that letter, I was supposed to write about most of the companies; [That]
senator Nwaoboshi owned the 98 companies,” she said.
“I never ever told the world that senator Nwaboshi was the
senator that was collecting the N1 billion.
“The issue of the N1 billion was different. I said ‘how can
an individual be collecting N1 billion every month?’ The case of senator
Nwaoboshi is the case of the 98 files which I was supposed to write about.
“What I met was not exactly what was going on. Akpabio
insisted that he would supervise the forensic audit. I reminded him and showed
him the letter that the president had written, that there is no way we could
spend the money that was in our budget.”
Nunieh said under her, the commission did not award a single
contract.
“I want to tell the world that I never did any employment. I
never gave out a single contract from NDDC,” she said.
“I am not corrupt. No contractor can sit anywhere and say
they gave me N10. And I can say before the world that I’m the most unpopular MD
ever that came to NDDC. The money of the people of Niger Delta is blood money,
I refused to touch it.
“Even when my friends were contractors, even when they
claimed that they were owed monies, my instruction was that everybody should
finish their jobs. Everybody saw contractors going back to site when I was the
MD.”
Nunieh could not appear before the panel to physically
testify because police laid a siege to her residence in Port Harcourt on
Thursday.
But for the arrival of Nyesom Wike, Rivers governor, she
would have been arrested.
The president has since ordered the speedy conclusion of the
audit of the commission’s finances from 2001 to 2019.
He ordered the audit in October last year.
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