By Hamilton Nwosa(Head, The New Diplomat’s Business and data tracking desk)
With sleazy allegations on the gale of alleged financial impropriety and other shenanigans in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) continuing to filter into the public domain, literally everyone in the fray is trying to exculpate himself.
At the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the embattled Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, who had testified on Monday and loudly alleged that legislators at the National Assembly got a prime number of the contracts under investigation was handed a 48-hour ultimatum to publish names of specific lawmakers that he had accused of taking up contracts at the commission.
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The Speaker of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabimila, who gave the ultimatum to the minister at plenary on Tuesday, roundly asked Akpabio to publish names of companies, contract amounts, location of projects and payment details.
An incensed Gbajabiamila threatened that failure by the minister to publish details of the alleged contracts under reference would attract the full weight of the law.
The Speaker’s ruling was coming in reaction to a point of order that had been raised by the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu (PDP-Delta).
Read also: NDDC’s N81.5bn Fraud: Drama As Pondei Faints Under Cross Examination
The House has been deliberating on the alleged misappropriation of funds in the NDDC as part of its oversight and appropriation schedules.
Akpabio had, while appearing before the House committee investigating suspected financial impropriety at the NDDC on Monday, revealed that 60 per cent of contracts in the commission were awarded to lawmakers.
On his part however, Gbajabiamila suggested that Akpabio was just playing one of the oldest games in the book by throwing a baseless accusation to cause distractions.
“This is my fifth time in the House and I have never benefited from any contract and it is so for many of us here,” he stated.
The Speaker equally recalled that ahead of the probe, the Chairman of the Committee on NDDC, Olubumi Tunji-Ojo (APC-Ondo), was accused of having contracts without documents to back it up, and that Tunji-Ojo stepped aside as a result of the allegation.
He noted that Akpabio had denied knowledge of any of contract Tunji-Ojo was accused of, stressing that such a situation would not be allowed to stand in the parliament.
However, a source in NDDC, who would not be named, insisted that some lawmakers were contractors to the Commission.
He said companies linked to some National Assembly members were among the 212 contractors whose payments were recently published in national dailies.
He stated that when the NDDC’s 2019 budget was passed, the lawmaking body had demurred in releasing the budget document to the Commission until they were paid for jobs allegedly done. According to him, it was after payment was made for 20 of the jobs between the 17th and 19th of March, 2020 that a copy of the budget was then handed over to the Commission
“They wanted to be paid N3.7 billion as 60 per cent of the work done for a N6.4 billion (skill acquisition in Niger Delta). The problem is that none of the work was done. An employee of the Commission had raised a memo that the jobs were not executed and should not be paid for,” he said.
Efforts to get the relevant officials of the house to respond to this fresh allegation were unsuccessful as at press time.
