- Akpabio Denies Nwaoboshi’s Allegations On N500M Contract Fraud, Says It’s Smear Campaign
In another string of revelations, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has been fingered in an authorized payment of N641 million by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) led by Prof Keme Pondei for a purported publicity of a forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a development that has raised red flag and serious ethical questions as the Federal Executive Council had only approved the sum of N318 million for the designated forensic audit.
Notwithstanding this subsisting FEC determination and approval, the minister allegedly proceeded to inappropriately approve another N641 million, a sum twice the FEC approved sum for the audit, under the guise of publicity for an audit that has been pegged at N318 million by the Federal Executive Council.
Some senior directors at the NDDC are bitter and can’t understand how the highest policy making council would determine the cost of a forensic audit at N318 million and a serving Minister who ought to execute that approval proceeds to illicitly approve associated payments valued at N641 million, a whopping sum that is twice the amount FEC determined and approved wholly for the forensic audit.
“This is daylight corruption and breach of the law. FEC determined the Forensic audit and all its associated elements at N318 million. Why would Akpabio now illicitly and secretly approve another N641m which is twice the amount for the forensic audit? It’s illicit and very unethical. Audit is an audit. It does not need such publicity. In any case, the sum of N318 million has been determined and approved by FEC as appropriate for the audit and its associated elements . It is pure corruption…”, a senior director at NDDC charged.
Buhari had ordered the forensic audit following allegations of financial recklessness spanning years at the NDDC as abandoned projects by the Commission litter the Niger Delta, while contractors simply failed to execute some projects despite being cash-backed.
Equally shocking were revelations by the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF) to the effect that Rodnab Construction, a company believed to have close relationship with Akpabio was illegally engaged, and paid a whopping N16.2bn upfront(the total contract sum when the project is still far from completion and hasn’t even met designated timelines) without passing through the stipulated due process for the contract. AGF had reportedly ordered the NDDC to cause Rodnab to refund the sum of N16.2 bn to the federation treasury and provide evidence of such payment with treasury receipts.
A coalition, Transparency and Accountability Advancement Group, in a release revealed that the N641 million was paid on May 23, 2020 as “Media and Communications Support For Forensic Audit Exercise” to a company known as Clear Point Communications Limited with Zenith Bank account number 1012613187.
Findings by The New Diplomat revealed that Clear Point Communication which has its listed address at 3/10 Military Street, Onikan, Lagos was incorporated on 16 February 2005 with registration number 616900 as an unlimited company. According to the records, the company is owned by Ekoriko Moffat from Akwa Ibom State with his wife Ekoriko Ngozi serving as Director.
The group also said that another sum of N39.4m was paid from the treasury of NDDC to the same account as consultancy on “rebuttal of media attacks” against Akpabio and his allies in NDDC IMC.
The statement from the group reads in part, “These expenditures are crazy and provide a glimpse into the terrible sleaze going on at the NDDC.”
In recent times, the NDDC’s IMC and the Minister overseeing it, Chief Akpabio have been enmeshed in sundry allegations of fraud with accusations and counter-accussations flying around on their conducts.
Only on Wednesday, The New Diplomat reported that the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi accused the minister of alleged misappropriation of funds and diversion of NDDC funds to finance a purported project in Nsukka, Enugu, a state outside the nine Niger Delta states recognized by the Act that set up the NDDC.
Nwaoboshi said: “In a letter dated August 7, 2017, addressed to the Chairman Senate Committee on NDDC Akpabio requested that five projects worth 500 million naira be added to the budget”
“Akpabio as Minority Leader of the Senate then used his office to include projects not budgeted for in the Appropriation Bill.”
He further disclosed that despite releasing the funds there were no evidence of execution of the project when investigations were conducted.
“Findings show that while there was no physical evidence of implementation of these projects, checks show contracts were awarded and fully paid for,” Nwaboshi said.
In his reaction, Akpabio’s spokesman, Anietie Ekong denied the allegations, saying they were part of a smear campaign against the minister.
Ekong said: “We want to categorically deny the allegation that he wrote to the Committee to include the purported projects and was awarded the contract to execute them by the NDDC.
“Senator Akpabio has nothing to do with those projects. So, it is one in a series of a smear campaign by the man because he is afraid that the forensic audit will catch up with him.”
Meanwhile, documents released by Nwaoboshi further revealed that similar contracts collections without execution were allegedly carried out on NDDC by Akpabio in 2016 and in 2018, respectively.
Amid the forensic audit into past and present NDDC spendings, the allegations against the Commission and Akpabio are coming as the Senate had on May 5, set up a six-member Ad-hoc Committee to probe into alleged financial recklessness to the tune of N40 billion by the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC.
The Ad-hoc Committee, which has Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi as Chairman, has been mandated to probe all issues relating to the alleged misapplication and misappropriation of funds at the Commission including the sum of N40 billion allegedly mismanaged by the IMC, N16.2bn illicit payments purportedly authorized to Rodnab, a company alleged to have links to Akpabio, and sundry sums paid to various companies under inappropriate water hyacinth projects, etc.
