The interim management committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC) has asked the police to probe contractors who
failed to execute projects that were fully paid for.
In a letter dated July 29 and addressed to Mohammed Adamu,
inspector-general of police, Kemebradikumo Pondei, NDDC acting managing
director, said contracts were paid for in 2017.
In the documents attached to the letter,
seven companies were given the sum of N235,209,600 million for the supply of
plastic desks and chairs.
This brings the sum total of the contracts to N1.6 billion.
The commission had asked Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the
senate committee on NDDC, to refund N2.5 billion for the supply of plastic
chairs and tables, but it is not clear if they are different contracts or the
same as referred to in the letter to the IGP.
Nwaoboshi has since asked the commission to charge him to
court if they have proof that he diverted the items.
In the letter, Pondei told the IGP that the items were
diverted to a warehouse along Benin expressway, instead of depositing the
chairs and tables in any of the commission’s warehouses.
“In or about 2017, the commission awarded contracts to
certain companies for the production of desks and chairs for primary and
secondary schools in the Niger Delta Region. The list of the companies is
attached,” Pondei said.
“The contracts were awarded in furtherance of the
commission’s education sector mandate [to improve] learning conditions in the
Niger Delta region.
“Instead of supplying the chairs and desks to the
commission’s warehouse in Port Harcourt or to any of the NDDC offices in the
nine Niger Delta states, the contractors supplied them to a warehouse described
as Akuede Akwis, Benin Expressway, Okpanam before Wichetech.
“The warehouse is located in Delta state and has no
relationship with the commission. Waybills evidencing delivery of the desks and
chairs at the said warehouse are hereby attached.
“Despite having been fully paid for the contracts, the
contractors and the owner of the warehouse have refused to release the chairs
and desks to the commission.
“The resultant effect is that the commission and the Niger
Delta region have been deprived of the use of the desks and chairs and neither
have the contractors refunded the monies paid on the items to the commission as
money had and received.
“It is on the strength of the foregoing that the NDDC
invites you to take a look at the fact culminating in this petition.”
In October, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a forensic
audit into the commission’s finances from 2001 to 2019.
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