*GCGG’s Country Director Urges Buhari To Inaugurate NDDC Board To Rescue The Commission
By Hamilton Nwosa(Head, The New Diplomat’s Business and Data tracking desk)
As the controversy over the alleged inappropriate expenditure of N40Bn by the Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) Interim Management Committee (IMC) acting on the said approval of Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio, escalates, the Niger Delta Professionals(NDP) have carpeted Akpabio for allegedly using Rodnab Construction Ltd as a front, a company that is alleged to have received an incongruous N16bn disbursement from the NDDC.
The NDP in a statement last night said the action of inappropriately jettisoning the audit report of the Auditor-General of the Federation which queried alleged unethical financial disbursements to Rodnab Construction, coupled with Akpabio’s action in reportedly proceeding to effect further colossal payments of N6bn to Rodnab notwithstanding a subsisting red flag from the AGF’s office, is the height of political recklessness and financial indiscretion.
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Dr Peter Wilson-Jack who issued the statement on behalf of the NDP said the struggles of the brave, hard-working, and toiling peoples of the Niger Delta cannot be rewarded with “ a gang of impermissible characters supervised by a Minister facing allegations of humongous corruption.”
He said; “ There is no single day that Akpabio’s name is not mentioned in the media with one allegation of corruption or the other. This narrative is most sad and totally pathetic as the Minister dances from one allegation to another. We enjoin Akpabio to step aside to avoid tampering with sensitive records and files at the NDDC while investigations are on-going at the National Assembly. This is not the Niger Delta that our forebears, the late Comrade Adaka Boro, the late Chief Mukoro Mowoe, the late Chief Anthony Enahoro, the late Sir Udo Udoma, the late Chief Dappa-Biriye, the late Ken Saro-Wiwa, etc all of blessed memory fought for in their life time. We urge President Buhari to protect his own name and excellent integrity which Akpabio has distressingly brought to utter disrepute among our people in the Niger Delta by asking the Minister to step aside in the meantime and name a solid professional of unassailable integrity as a replacement with the already cleared Board in place to drive this forensic audit. With all the allegations of fraud hanging on Akpabio’s head, we believe that he is merely using the forensic audit as a ruse to promote illegality and perpetuate a culture of deceit, fraud and corruption at the NDDC. We need integrity and professionalism at NDDC. That is the vision that should drive the Niger Delta going forward …”
This statement is coming on the heels of a press conference addressed by the Global Centre for Good Governance(GCGG) led by Dr Chris Udoh, which similarly called on the National Assembly to carry out a thorough probe into the affairs of the NDDC to ascertain the validity or otherwise of the alleged illicit expenditure at the NDDC by Akpabio and the IMC.
He said: “In that case, we would urge the National Assembly to recommend to the appropriate authorities that the IMC and the Minister recuse themselves from further administering the affairs of the commission, the Minister instructed to restrict himself to his ministry instead of ignoring the area of his primary assignment and fixing his gaze on NDDC with the burning eyes of a falcon and the original mistake of the IMC corrected by immediately inaugurating the statutory Board as recognized under the law to manage the affairs of the commission.
“It is not for nothing that the world is as old as it is. Perhaps, every day, in every nation, amongst every people, through time, people are coming face to face with their tormentors. What a man carves with his hands, that he shall bear on his head and the head that stirs the wasp’s nest bears it sting. Everyone in public office must take notice: there is always comeuppance for everything, every action and every transaction. For every wrong, there will be reckoning. Acting on the probable outcome of this probe will send a clear signal that change has indeed come to NDDC. The country needs to turn the rudder of the ship of state. Continuing in the same path would allow the ship to plow into an iceberg. This is a choice whose necessity no one would deny. For this probe, we shall press our energies to the zenith and watch the proceedings like a Derby horserace.”
Detailing the allegations, Dr Udoh accused Akpabio of procuring “RODNAB CONSTRUCTION LTD (his alleged front company) to pay the sum of N100m in three instalments through its Zenith Bank Account on February 10, 2020 to militants as an inducement to issue threats…to compel the former Ag. MD of NDDC, Mrs. Joy Nunieh to pay some phantom contracts he was interested in”.
He added: “We state clearly that Senator Akpabio directed the IMC to complete the payment of N16b to RODNAB for construction of the head office building when less than 70% of the job had been done. That the commission was forced to cancel the previous contract to MARSHLAND NIG LTD valued at N6bn, re-awarded it to RODNAB at an inflated cost of N16bn by the former MD in order to secure Senator Akpabio’s support in the last gubernatorial election. That under Senator Akpabio’s supervision and direction, the IMC has made payments running into billions of Naira for phony contracts covering Water Hyacinths, Emergency Road Construction and River Desilting. That the Minister directed the IMC to pay N3.8b for Cholera Vaccine and Lasa Fever Protective Kits the bulk of which were not supplied but a major chunk of the payment routed to him through his cronies.”
The GCGG listed some of the alleged beneficiary companies in the reported racketeering at the NDDC as Osmoserve Global Ltd which was awarded an emergency contract for Personal Protection Equipment and Medical Consumables on April 6 2020 for the sum of N4.8b, and 55% of the contract value paid before partial supplies were made, TALES AND BUILDINGS LTD, AHR LTD, and JULIUS DUNGA LTD and upfront payments of about N2b made to them. The GCGG stressed that “these contracts were awarded in a clandestine manner and payments made in violation of all known due process regulations and before Presidential approval was gotten to use only N6.250b to fight Covid19.”
Dr Udoh who lamented that there is a deficit of professionalism and competence at the commission because of the power grab attitude and revenge schemes of the IMC and Akpabio against competent directors and heads of departments who questioned the abuse of processes, and were redeployed in large numbers to state offices and replaced with pliant surrogates and puppets urged the National Assembly to arrest the drift into total lawlessness at the NDDC. According to Dr Udoh, this has become necessary because “ the crime at NDDC are accumulating at an alarming rate and the actors at NDDC must be made to appreciate that they can be restrained by the limiting structures and facilities of oversight powers of the National Assembly.”
He stated further: “There is gold and there is fool’s gold. Those who acquired fool’s gold at the expense of the poor masses of the region under the IMC must all be called upon to answer questions. All contracts documents must be produced and complete TSA Schedules tendered. Evidence of delivery of supplied items not only to the NDDC stores but to end users with dates and acknowledgments must be made available. The National Assembly must engage in rigorous examinations, even to the point of brain scan that would reveal lying, doubts and the smallest hesitation. This has become necessary because the stories coming out of NDDC in the last three months are very disheartening. The National Assembly should go a step further to determine the veracity or otherwise of the alleged reprisal and retaliation attacks on the staff of the commission who are being mandated to proceed on compulsory leave or retirement. The powers of the IMC to issue such a sweeping order must be reviewed in accordance with the provisions of the law. If the IMC lacks such powers, the order should be rescinded immediately and the IMC officially reprimanded.”
Recall that the NDDC ‘s IMC has been enmeshed in institutional crisis arising from allegations of massive fraud against the supervising Minister, Chief Akpabio in the last three months. But Akpabio while reacting to the allegations yesterday denied any wrong doing. While exonerating himself, Akpabio said the IMC approved only designated payments for N18bn, triggering more concerns as to where the IMC derived such non-existent power to approve payments when it is merely an ad hoc administrative arrangement unknown to the Law setting up the Commission.
The Minister also washed his hands off alleged contract scams. In a statement signed by Aniete Ekong, Press Secretary to Akpabio, the latter said he has devised proper means of certifying contracts before they are paid. He said: “It is instructive that the Commission under the supervision of Senator Akpabio has devised a strategy by which only duly verified and inspected contracts with photo and video evidences are recommended and approved for payments. The Interim Management Committee has been very prudent in managing the affairs of the interventionist agency…”
