- Asks Cairo Ojougboh To Tender Public Apology, Retract Defaming Allegation
By Gbenga Abulude(Politics and General Desk)
The Senate on Tuesday denied collecting N20m Covid-19 palliative from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The upper of chamber of the National Assembly in strong words, challenged the NDDC to list names of beneficiaries of the palliative or retract and apologise immediately to the Senate for defamation.
The acting Director of Projects, Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh had claimed in a national daily published at the weekend that the Commission offered N20m to each senator as Covid-19 palliative.
Ojougboh also added that each member of the House of Representatives got a palliative sum of N15m. But, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, in a statement, denied such allegation and challenged the NDDC official to release the full list of the lawmakers who received such palliative or tender a public apology immediately.
The statement titled, “NDDC boss says senators got N20m, Reps N15m each for COVID–19 – a disclaimer,” reads:
“The Senate views with grave concern a statement credited to Dr Cairo Ojougboh, the Executive Director, Projects of the NDDC who alleged that National Assembly members received varying sums of money as COVID-19 palliative.
“The Senate hereby disclaims the allegation in its entirety.
“The Senate categorically denies that any Senator collected the sum of N20 million or any sum whatsoever from NDDC as COVID relief fund of for any purpose whatsoever.
“The Senate challenges Dr Ojougboh to publicly provide evidence of his claim and list the names of the Senators he allegedly gave the alleged sum.
“Failure to provide evidence of his claim, the Senate hereby demands an immediate retraction and a public apology from Dr Cairo Ojougboh.”
It would be recalled that the Senate and House of Representatives Committee on NDDC in different sittings had probed the illegal spending by the IMC of the commission, totalling N81.5bn between January and July 2020.
These allegations of corruption had led to calls by different groups for an outright sack and prosecution of the IMC Acting MD, Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei and other top officials allegedly involved in the fraudulent and illicit spending.
