Startling revelations about the looting of the treasury of
the Niger Delta Development Commission were made on Friday before a committee of
the House of Representatives.
Leading the exposure was Mr Johnson Kolawole, the Head,
Directorate of Research and Programmes, Act for Positive Transformation
Initiative, NGO.
He accused the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the
NDDC of financial recklessness and mismanagement.
He stated that the IMC had expended over N80 billion between
January 2020 and May 2020 as against the N22 billion repeatedly portrayed by
the IMC.
He said that the 2019 Appropriation Act as passed by the
National Assembly provided for some emergency projects across the state in the
region with an additional N800 million as emergency contingency sum.
According to him, the IMC had spent N20 billion on emergency
road repairs, with fraudulent cases of contract inflation and
non-implementation.
“How would they explain the payment of N13.6 million for
consultancy on the construction of ‘infant Jesus’? The said payment went into a
Zenith bank account number 1014119683.
“On May 19, 2020, the IMC paid a firm N39.375 Million as
consultancy fee for rebuttal. What a waste!
“The company had earlier received N34 Million into its
Zenith Bank account number 1012613187 for ‘consultancy on reputation management
for NDDC’.
“Same day, when businesses and countries were closing their
doors, the same company, Clear Point Communication Ltd was paid N34 million for
‘Niger Delta Development Forum in Washington DC, USA’ and another N32.9 million
for ‘Summit on NDDC and Investment Opportunities in Dorchester, London’, same
day.
“There was no evidence of implementation of the contracts.
Money paid went to private individuals; this ad hoc committee can call for the
account statements of the firm to verify this.
“Same company received into same account a sum of N536
Million Naira for “campaign to save lives” in the Niger Delta on April 23,
2020.
“The payment was broken into 16 units to divert attention.
Again, the money went into private pockets, some staffs of the commission were
beneficiaries.
“May 22nd, another N641 million was paid to same company for
media support for forensic audit as though forensic audit was meant to be a
media affair,” he said.
Kolawale alleged that monies meant for students on
scholarship abroad was being diverted into private account of the IMC.
Watch Kolawole’s presentation via Channels TV:
https://youtu.be/CiBP485auSo
Ms Joy Nunieh, former acting Managing Director NDDC told the
committee that only N8 billion of the said N81.5 billion spent between October
2019 to May 2020 was spent under her watch.
Nunieh said that she was under pressure by Akpabio to abuse
budget processes and to engage in financial recklessness.
She said that she prepared documents for the forensic audit
mandated by President Muhammadu Buhari before she was forced out of office.
She revealed that the lead consultant procured to carry out
the forensic audit did not follow due process as it breached constitutional
requirements.
Nunieh also said that no reputable auditing firm in Nigeria
is among the nine sub-auditing firms already engaged to carry out the job.
She explained that none of the firms had carried out any
forensic audit in the last four years as mandated by the Constitution.
Nunieh recommended that the President and the National
Assembly should ensure the procurement of forensic auditors to follow due
process, otherwise they could bring the process into disrepute.
She said that the forensic auditors should look into staff
recruitment process and qualifications as professionals and experts in the
commission are insufficient.
She urged the Inspector General of Police to investigate and
arrest Akpabio for forcing her to take oath of secrecy.
In his ruling, Tunji-Ojo said that the committee had not
indicted anybody and that all accused should appear for fair hearing.
He said that the committee is not out to witch-hunt but to
bring out the facts and reposition the NDDC for better service delivery.
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