Immediate past acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joy Nunieh on Friday made stunning revelations to the House of Representatives committee on NDDC, investigating the alleged financial malfeasance in the commission.
Nunih who testified before the committee via zoom after her plan to appear in person was foiled by armed police men who took over her Port Harcourt residence, said only N8 billion of the said N81.5 billion spent between October 2019 and May 2020 was spent under her watch.
She revealed that the minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio refused to give her official car when he discovered she would not co-operate with him to carryout shady deals in the commission.
“At the NDDC, I want to make it clear, Senator Akpabio when he saw I was not co-operating refused to give me an official vehicle. I didn’t have an official vehicle. When I first came in there were two bulletproof cars that I was using, I came to Abuja, a gentleman met me at the airport and said I’m one of your contractors, I’m the one that gave you the car that you are using, and I said so I’m using a contractors car and I’m supposed to supervise a forensic audit.
“I told Akpabio, I thought the car I was using is from the commission. He said don’t worry the man is a very good friend of mine. When I got back to Port Harcourt, I returned the car, the second car is still at the mechanic, after what happened last Thursday I asked them to go and collect it so they won’t say it’s because I wrecked the car.
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“The police that were in my home on Thursday were sent by Akpabio former ADC when he was governor of Akwa Ibom State. The NDDC obviously was involved, what would have happened is that they would have taken me away. I’m very grateful because this is the modus operandi that happened in Akwa Ibom State”, Nunih disclosed.
She recommended that: “Mr President should direct the immediate establishment of a National Procurement Council in NDDC; it should be the first thing even before we talk about a forensic audit. That could help Nigeria save so much money in terms of fraud and corruption.
“I will like to see the forensic audit really take place, I will like you to recommend to auditor general to give you a list of certified forensic auditors in Nigeria so that he can get them quickly to carry out a proper forensic audit of the NDDC.
“The audit is not just financial; it’s supposed to look through the personnel of the NDDC. When we are talking about billions of naira being spent by the commission, it’s unbelievable that they don’t have up to ten engineers. The staff audit is necessary,” she said.
The former acting MD said the National Assembly has a role to play, adding that an oversight function would help the new management that will come in.
“Supervise them and make sure they act only in accordance with the law. To Senator Akpabio, he felt the President has delegated all the powers to him, he felt he also had the powers of the board. There must be a re-orientation for the minister.
“We didn’t have this problem from the records I saw when the NDDC was under the office of the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF). The NDDC I will recommend should be taken back to the office of the SGF”.
Also testifying before the committee, Johnson Kolawole, head, Directorate of Research and Programmes, Act for Positive Transformation Initiative, a non-government organisation (NGO), accused the Kemerbrandikumo Pondei-led Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC of gross abuse of budget implementation process.
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, adding 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 has spent N20 billion on emergency road repairs where there have been 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’? 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 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 above 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 for “campaign to save lives” in the Niger Delta on April 23, 2020,” he said.
