The Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development
Commission, NDDC, Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, who collapsed at the public
hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC had been sick.
Director, Corporate Affairs at the NDDC, Charles Obi Odili
disclosed this in a statement obtained in Port Harcourt.
The statement says Prof. Pondei who had been ill for more
than 2 weeks ignored his doctor’s advice to honour the National Assembly.
Odili stated that it was unfair to hold Pondei personally
liable for acts which took place when he was not the head of the Commission.
“This morning, his condition deteriorated, and his doctors
advised against attending the hearing.
“However, he ignored his doctors’ advice because of the
realisation that his traducers will use his absence at the hearing to soil his
name and reputation. He thought he could make it through the hearing and take
care of his health later.
“As it turned out, his doctors were right. Prof Pondei is in
a stable condition at a clinic in Abuja.
“Given this incident, the Commission wishes to make the
following points: Prof Prondei became Ag Managing Director of NDDC on February
20, 2020. By May 5, the two arms of the National Assembly ordered a probe of
his tenure of exactly 74 days at the time, two-third of which was spent under
COVID-19 lockdown conditions.
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“Prof Pondei, as the Managing Director of the Commission,
has an official duty to answer for the activities of the Commission like what
happened between 2008 – 2012 which is the subject of another hearing based on
the auditor general’s report for the period.
“When the two arms of the National Assembly called for a
probe, it was over a missing N40 billion. The Commission took the rare step of
publishing all payments made by it under Prof Pondei. No organisation in
Nigeria, public or private has ever got to that level of transparency in our
national history.
“As this publication undermined the claims of his accusers,
the subject of the public hearing changed to ‘financial recklessness’. While
this might appear insignificant, it amounted to changing the goalposts to smear
a clean man. While misappropriation of N40 billion is a matter demanding
objective proof, the question of financial recklessness is one open to
subjective judgement,” the statement reads.
The Commission who expressed delighted that Hon Olubunmi
Ojo, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC has recused
himself from the hearing, suggested that everyone should be made to answer for
his role in the misappropriation of the resources of the Commission since its
creation.
The statement concluded that the NDDC is participating at
the NASS hearing, even though it thinks that seeing to the conclusion of the
forensic audit will serve the future of the Commission and the Niger Delta
region more than the probe of 74 days of activities.
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