More trouble looms in NDDC over corruption allegations

…Legal practitioner petitions NASS, EFCC

A legal practitioner, Mr. Ojeh Godwin, has petitioned the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, over what he described as the flagrant abuse of statutory procedure and due process in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

In the petition, copies of which were sent to the President Muhammadu Buhari, chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corruption and other Practices Commission (ICPC) among others, the petitioner called for an investigation into the activities of the NDDC.

Ojeh accused the interim management committee of the NDDC of lackluster performance, abandoned projects, poor project delivery, pervasive corruption, blatant illegality, flagrant abuse of power and of statutory procedure and due process.

He said: “It is disheartening that the leadership of the interim management committee of the NDDC which was supposedly set up to restore sanity and rescue the body has taken over the same acts of corruption and fraudulent transactions with which the erstwhile leadership of the commission were alleged.”

The Edo state based legal practitioner particularly, accused the former acting Managing Director of the Commission, Dr. Joi Nunieh of throwing caution to the winds in his involvement in corrupt activities in the NDDC.

“It is saddening that the interim management committee and other members of the management team that are to oversee the forensic audit of the NDDC as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, in a spate of few months in office have done nothing, but to betray the trust reposed in them.

“Rather than stemming or exposing the corruption, they had accused their predecessors of, they have thrown caution to the winds and donned the toga of corruption to perpetrate fraudulent acts and abuse of laid down statutory procedure under the NDDC Act and Public Procurement Act.

“The so much acclaimed contract verification committee led then by Nunieh and other members of the management team approved the payment of N4 billion on spurious contracts,” he alleged.

He also accused the interim management committee of dispensing funds not captured under any budgetary allocation or appropriation.

“This is reflected in the memo dated January 17, where they directed the approval and also directed that the summarised information on the health and education projects listed in a memo dated December 3, 2019 and January 10, be treated for payment.

Ganduje abolishes Almajiri system

“They did this despite the fact that the memo dated January 17, clearly stated that the programmes have already been awarded and supplied and that some of the items have already been distributed.

“In fact, they overruled the professional advice of a top official of the NDDC, who stated in the memo that the request is for inclusion in the 2020 budget and not for payment.

“This singular act of theirs was in direct conflict with the provisions of Section 16(1) (b) of the Public Procurement Act.

“In the instant case, there was no budgetary appropriation and there was no certificate of no objection to back up the payments made.

“All the payments so made are detailed below. The memos referred to above which speak for themselves are annexed herewith as annexure A, B and C,’’ the petitioner added..

Expressing displeasure over the activities of the interim management committee, he said that rather than follow due process, the interim management committee simply raised another memo giving a summary of contract awards and the various stages of the cintracts including the names of the beneficiaries companies and the contract sum.

He averred that the actions of the NDDC management in making payments for non-existent contracts were tantamount to fraud.

Ojeh emphasised that the interim management committee in many instances paid money beyond the bench mark of its official capacity.

“As a concerned Nigerian and indigene of the Niger Delta, I humbly bring the above detailed infraction of the laws to your attention and urge you to use your good offices to investigate this complaint/ petition,” he added.