- Calls for Hard Facts
- Accuses Akpabio, Interim Mgt of Plotting To Derail NDDC
…As Buhari Plans To Inaugurate New Board This Week
By ‘Dotun Akintomide, the Online Editor @ The New Diplomat
The unsettling row stemming from allegations that companies linked to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Senator Peter Nwaoboshi are benefiting from the N1 billion monthly consultancy fee paid by the agency has led to the Senator challenging the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC to back up its allegations with incontrovertible facts.
In a recent interview, the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Dr Gbene Joi Nunieh, had said that the Commission has suspended the monthly payment of N1billion to a consultant that collects money from International Oil Companies (IOCs) on its behalf and then remit same to its coffers.
“We have a consulting firm engaged as a collection agent. We have another company that also collects three per cent whenever money is paid by the International Oil Companies, IOCs,” Nunieh told newsmen.
Nunieh had alleged that some of the companies helping the NDDC to collect the money from the IOCs are linked to Senator Nwaoboshi.
But Nwaoboshi, while addressing newsmen in Abuja through his Special Adviser on Legislative Matters, Luka Igbonoba, asked the IMC to publish the facts if there is any such consultancy arrangements, as well as the names and details of the companies involved.
“Senator Nwaoboshi is challenging the IMC that if such a thing exists they should publish it. If they have the facts and records to back their claims that Senator Nwaoboshi or a company linked to him is being paid N1billion consultancy fee every month by the NDDC, let them avail the public with the records.
“What are you hiding? Let’s know who the consultant is or who owns the company. I can tell you that everything they are doing is about protection of self-interest. Everything Akpabio cannot get he tries to destroy,” Igbonoba said.
Describing claims by members of the IMC that 1000 contracts were awarded to a Senator by the NDDC as lies, Igbonoba said: “How many contracts do the NDDC award in a year that they will give 1000 contracts to one Senator.”
He alleged that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio has been throwing mud at Nwaoboshi due to the failure of the Senate Committee on the NDDC to grant Akapabio’s wish by not confirming NDDC board nominees despite many overtures.
“The IMC wanted to perpetuate themselves in power. They lobbied the committee and its chairman as well as the Senate that the new board members should not be screened. But they refused.
“The truth is that if this country must survive we must adhere to international best practices and the rule of law in the way we do things. This is the reason for the campaign of calumny against Senator Nwaoboshi. They are now accusing him wildly of things unfathomable,” he said.
Igbonoba who accused the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs of frustrating the inauguration by President Muhammadu Buhari, the new NDDC board members already confirmed by the Senate, also called on Akpabio to explain to Nigerians how the $91million and N6billion that were in the agency’s coffers as at the time it was brought under the supervision of his ministry were utilized.
He dismissed claims that the agency did not have budgets for 2017 and 2018, stating records exist to show that budgets were approved for the Commission in the last two years.
Speaking further, Igbonoba, an aide to the Senate Chair on NDDC, Senator Nwaoboshi said the transfer of the NDDC from the presidency to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs was against the wishes and the aspirations of the people of the Niger Delta who believed that having the agency being directly supervised by the presidency would better serve them than moving it elsewhere.
“The annual budget for the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs is just about N23billion but Akpabio is looking for an elephant and he felt that that elephant lives in NDDC,” he said.
However, a source had disclosed that barring any last minute changes, members of the new NDDC board already approved by Senate are to be inaugurated this week, putting an end to the much controversies that the IMC has attracted to the Commission in recent months.
By inaugurating the new board of the NDDC, the President will finally be on the same page with the people of the region who have stated unequivocally that the IMC is alien to the law setting up the Commission, hence the many controversies.
The new board made up of seasoned administrators which include the Chairman, Dr. Pius Odubu (Edo); Managing Director, Olorogun Bernard Okumagba (Delta); Executive Director Projects, Mr. Otobong Ndem (Akwa Ibom); Executive Director Finance and Admin, Mr. Maxwell Okoh (Bayelsa) amongst others are expected to reposition the Commission to deliver on its core mandate.
Among its many statutory responsibilities, the board is also expected to oversee and support the planned audit of the NDDC as proposed by President Buhari.
