The Niger Delta Development
Commission (NDDC) says the list of contract beneficiaries released by Godswill
Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, is authentic.
Akpabio had named some federal
lawmakers and former governors as beneficiaries of contracts awarded by the
commission.
Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the
senate committee on NDDC; Matthew Urhoghide, chairman of the senate committee
on public accounts; and Orji Uzor Kalu, senate whip; are among the lawmakers
named as beneficiaries.
James Ibori and Emmanuel
Uduaghan, former governors of Delta state, were also listed as beneficiaries.
All of them have denied
benefitting from the contracts, accusing
Akpabio of tarnishing their reputation.
But in a statement on Tuesday,
Charles Odili, NDDC’s director of corporate affairs, said the the list emanated
from 8,000 documents handed over to forensic auditors.
“The Interim Management Committee
of the commission stands by the list which came from files already in the
possession of the forensic auditors,” he said.
“It is not an Akpabio list but
the NDDC’s list; the list is part of the volume of 8,000 documents already
handed over to the forensic auditors.
“Prominent indigenes of the Niger
Delta whose names were on the list should not panic as the commission knew that
people used the names of prominent persons in the region to secure contracts,
and the ongoing forensic audit would unearth those behind the contracts.
“[The] intention of the list was
to expose committee chairmen in the national assembly who used fronts to
collect contracts from the commission, some of which were never executed.”
In October, President Muhammadu
Buhari ordered a forensic audit into the finances of the NDDC from 2001 to
2019.
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