Cairo Ojougboh, executive director of projects at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), says there will be chaos if the full list of those who were awarded contracts by the commission is released.
Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, had named
some beneficiaries after the house of representatives threatened to sue him.
While appearing before a house of representatives panel
probing the alleged mismanagement of N81.5 billion by the interim management
committee (IMC) of the commission, Akpabio had said federal lawmakers were the
biggest beneficiaries of contracts awarded by the commission.
Peter Nwaoboshi, senate committee chairman on NDDC; Matthew
Urhoghide, senate committee chairman on public accounts, and James Manager,
senator representing Delta south, were some of the beneficiaries listed by the
minister.
Speaking with Vanguard, Ojougboh said Nwaoboshi, and
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, chairman of the house committee on NDDC, and the rest of
the national assembly “are culpable” in the sleaze contracts.
The director said he only wants to make sure that all the
monies that have been spent are accounted for
“The national assembly is culpable. At the end of the
forensic audit, you will see members of the national assembly,” Ojougboh said.
“A senator came and said that in the list of 2016 they
brought, that he had only six contracts, I said no, that he had more. What he
didn’t know is that we did not release the list for 2017 and the one for 2019.
If we release it this country will break.
“Oh, because of the people looting, the calibre, the names
and people looting the NDDC. And who engineers it? The chairmen of the NDDC in
the senate and house of representatives in the national assembly.”
The director described the N51 million monthly imprest for
Kemebradikumo Pondei, acting managing director of the commission, as “security
vote”.
“My MD feeds 100 policemen every day and in Port Harcourt as
an executive of NDDC, you need security more than anything, till tomorrow, you
know of it. When they are sending these policemen, the instruction is to feed
them, cater for them, that is what is in the letter the police hierarchy
sends,” he said.
“So people are talking about 51 million of imprest for the
MD, it is a security vote, it’s not for his personal pocket, the money does not
go to the MD’s account.
“Myself, N18 million, it does not go to my account, it goes
for security and other expenses and it is retired, there is no fraud in it.”
Ojougboh said the sum of N3.14 billion was expended as
COVID-19 relief for staff adding that although it was not budgeted for, it was
classified as emergency.
“They are talking about COVID-19 payment, the federal
government is given every citizen N30,000 each, do you know how much the
federal government has spent? The CBN and many other corporations have been
giving COVID-19 allowances, which are within their purview, just like NDDC
did,” he said.
“In the national assembly, each of the senators got N20
million, while the house of representatives members got N15 million for
COVID-19 from the national assembly.”
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