The Senate has resolved to investigate the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over the alleged mismanagement of N40 billion.
It specifically, wants the NDDC Interim management under the supervision of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs to account for the huge sum allegedly squandered within the last three months.
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At its sitting on Tuesday, the Senate set up an ad hoc committee headed by Senator Olubunmi Adetunbi (APC/Ekiti North) to investigate alleged financial recklessness by the interim management committee.
The ad hoc committee would also look into the transactions carried out by interim management within the last three months and report back in four weeks. These resolutions were sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator George Sekibo (PDP/ Rivers East).
Sen. Sekibo had in the motion titled: “Urgent need to investigate alleged financial recklessness in the NDDC”, alluded to alleged cases of financial recklessness perpetrated by the management committee.
Recall that the IMC has been in endless controversy in recent times over alleged questionable and fraudulent payments to some companies, including Signora Concept Ltd, Rodnab, AHR, Osmorserve Ltd, Tales and Buildings Ltd, Julius Dinga Ltd, etc. This and other alleged cases of fraudulent practices against the IMC prompted endless petitions by stakeholders in the Niger Delta region, calling for a probe or investigation into the affairs of the NDDC’s IMC. Similarly, in April this year, some stakeholders reportedly petitioned the EFCC and the ICPC over alleged sharp practices by officials of the IMC , citing purported fraudulent payments for inappropriate water hyacinth jobs, Lasser fever contract deal, among others.
According to Senator Sekibo, while President Buhari set up the interim management committee to conduct forensic audit of financial transactions carried out by former boards of the commission, reports indicate that the interim management is guilty of same. He added that aside the financial recklessness being carried out by the interim management committee, it is also indulging in the arbitrary sack of top management staff of the commission.
Sen. Sekibo said: “While President Buhari’s action of setting up an interim management and the forensic audit may have been conceived to forestall the financial recklessness of the commission and reposition it, the interim management has been bedevilled with the same financial misuse, misapplication, misappropriation or outright fraud in the management of the funds of the commission.
“Within the last three months, the commission has spent over N40 billion of the commission’s funds without recourse to established processes of funds disbursement, which has opened up further suspicion among stakeholders in the Niger Delta region.
“The interim management committee is also alleged to be arbitrarily using executive power to wrongful sack management staff of the commission without recourse to established civil service rules and practices.
“Consequently, the interim management has lost credibility and is seen as a financial conduit pipe based on opinions of stakeholders in the region, which therefore, urgently calls for an intervention by the Senate.”
Members of the ad hoc committee are Senators Jika Haliru (APC /Bauchi Central), Mohammed Almakura (APC/ Nasarawa South), Abdulfatai Buhari (APC /Oyo North), Chukwuka Utazi (PDP /Enugu North), Ibrahim Hadeija (APC /Jigawa North East) and Degi – Eremienyo Biobarakuma (APC /Bayelsa East).
Below is a list of some alleged questionable payments purportedly made by the IMC to some companies believed to have benefitted from the alleged scam:
