[dropcap]A[/dropcap] vote of confidence has been passed on President Muhammadu Buhari over his determination to move on with the probe of past managements of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
This development came as Nigerians are beginning to be aware of the true state of things in the commission which, according to them, has been used as conduit pipe for syphoning the fortunes of Niger Delta people to personal pockets for as long as it has lasted.
The public backing for the President, it was gathered, has been necessitated by latest discoveries regarding the extent to which those entrusted with using the NDDC in the past to better the lots of Niger Deltans had rather impoverished them with no pity.
Our investigations revealed that the exposed high level corruption in the commission is the main reason the current Interim Management Committee (IMC) appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to manage the NDDC, while the Forensic Audit lasts, is being blackmailed.
Now in the know of how failures of the past led to the high poverty rate in the region, Nigerians within and outside the place are making bold statements warning the blackmailers, who they claim are paid to occupy both the traditional media and dominate the social media to frustrate the probe, must leave the IMC alone to do its job.
They said those who ruined the Niger Delta are precisely the same people who sre blackmailing the President and that the corruption merchants therefore are the ones after the IMC appointed by the President.
“Those who looted the NDDC are angry that their breast milk has been cut off by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“They fed fat from the pains of ordinary Niger Deltans and so it is understandable that they are kicking a fuss over the cleaning of the NDDC,” one of the sources said.
Another source also spoke: “Those who wanted to appoint the members of the IMC of the NDDC, who would cover their crimes in the citadel of corruption, are up against Mr. President’s decision to clean NDDC up.
“Where did they get the power to term the IMC of the NDDC as illegal?
“Their rage is nothing. The president is determined. The Minister is determined. IMC is determined to see to it, that the people of Niger Delta get their money’s worth of service,” he said.
The major revelation that gave credence to the claims by the Nigerians, who spoke angrily while asking President Buhari to go ahead “to help us your innocent sons and daughters of Niger Delta against these evils of ourselves” came from the Executive Director, Projects, NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojoigboh, who spoke in an emotion laden tone revealing how N50 billion was allegedly paid in one day to some yet to be named Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for no reason of targeted interest.
Ojoigboh spoke on an international television programme, which video clip has been circulated lately on the social media.
He said, “N50 billion in one day! One day!! We are not talking about three months. And who did they pay to? NGOs. The records are there.
“If you see what has happened in NDDC, you will weep for this country. That is the reason for this campaign of calumny.
“They don’t want it (the probe) to see the light of the day. But President Buhari is determined, the Minister is determined and we will provide the basis for this Forensic Audit to be concluded,” he said.

There Are Powerful Forces Behind Fraud In NDDC- Cairo Ojougboh

Question: The activities of the NDDC,  especially the Interim Management Committee which you are a member have come under the searchlight. As an insider, can you take us through the nature of the crises?

Answer: Thank you very much. What is happening in the NDDC is quite unfortunate. I will like to begin from when we came in as the Interim Management Committee. When we got to the NDDC, we met a letter from the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio stopping a consultancy arrangement given to two firms.

One is star Line Nigeria Limited. Star Line was illegally collecting revenue on behalf of the NDDC for statutory payments and they were earning N1 billion every month. When the minister came in, the company invited the Minister to join the fraud. The Minister said “No”, and immediately asked for the stoppage of that consultancy.

Another company called Candour went to LNG and claimed they were the ones who initiated statutory payments from LNG. And the company belongs to a serving Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The letter says they collected $28 million and then exchanged it for N360 to a dollar. As at that time the exchange rate was not N360 to $1. The CBN was exchanging for N225 to $1. And at the end of the day, they asked for 20 per cent of the $28million. They were paid. They wanted to continue. Senator Akpabio said “No”, this is fraud against Nigeria and hell was let loose. They claimed that this is the money used to work in the National Assembly in Abuja. According to the chairman, if there is any contest in the National Assembly this is where they source the money from. The IMC wrote letters to these contracts and because of that they declared war on the IMC.

Let me make this clear. The Hon. Speaker and the President of the Senate are not aware of what the Chairmen of the Committees are doing in the National Assembly. And even members of the committees are not also aware. It is just One man squad.

Between 2016 and 2019 emergency contracts of over N2 trillion were awarded under the supervision of the Chairmen of both committees. And I have the list of how the contracts were distributed. In the list, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta collected 1000 of those jobs and said he was going to share it among the senators, but the senators denied knowledge of such files. We have the records. These 1000 contracts were collected by a man called Nelson Agbamuche purportedly on behalf of the Senate.

The immediate crises that we are witnessing is as a result of the budget. How did the budget run into problem?. The bureaucracy told us when we came in that in 2016 there was no budget, 2017 there was no budget. 2018 there was no budget. The budget for 2019 was passed some few weeks ago. What led to it? When a Chairman of Senate Committee came in in 2015, he called the bureaucracy of NDDC and told them to insert jobs worth N15 billion for him, they went back and complied. But when the budget was sent to him he said he did not mean N15 billion but N150 billion. The bureaucracy went back but couldn’t comply because there was no way they could do that. The Chairman advised them to award the contract as emergency jobs so that they won’t go through the due processes. That was how the emergency procedures were breached and the commission presently has liabilities of over N3 trillion. How can this continue?

And that is what the IMC and the Hon. Minister said we have to write in.  It didn’t just stop there. The Chairman of the House Committee on Niger Delta came to us and brought out emergency training programme for N6.4 billion and said that he has met the first  milestone and that the commission should pay him N3.7 billion . We said this milestone you are talking about cannot be paid because you have not done it . He said the job belonged to the speaker and we said we cannot pay. We went and met the Speaker and the Speaker said he was not aware of such a thing. This was not in the budget at all. When they passed the 2019 budget, the Chairman, House committee included it and insisted we must pay the money and we said we cannot pay .

They said the IMC has stolen N40 billion, how can that be possible? All the payments we have made on projects were duly verified. I took my time as the Executive Director Projects, to go from State to State to verify the projects and document them. Whenever we are satisfied that you have done jobs that merit payments we will pay you. And we were not paying as they used to pay so the contractors are very angry.

Before now, once you have a contract in NDDC, it was like you have won a lottery. A contract in NDDC that was awarded for N700 million can be executed with N10 million to N20 million. But we brought in changes. When we inspect the project we look at your Bill of Engineering Quantity and rate the job that you have done and issue you the interim payments certificate for that Job. And through this process we have saved the commission over N50 billion already. Can you believe it that since the inception of NDDC the Agency has not done even 10 kilometres of dualized road in Niger Delta. Reputable companies like Julius Berger has never been engaged to execute projects in Niger Delta.

When Senator Godswill Akpabio came on board as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, he had ideas to replicate what he did in Akwa Ibom State as Governor. In order to do that he said the Commission must bring in reputable companies that can deliver quality jobs to the people of the Niger Delta. And that is what those who are struggling to take over the NDDC do not want. Can you imagine that somebody who has oversight functions over the NDDC is the one recommending people for appointment into the management of the same Commission? If that was to happen how can he in his own conscience, exercise proper oversight functions over his nominees. As it turned out, the President didn’t allow it, so we became enemies of the sponsors of that particular board that was not allowed to operate.

Question:  Between 2007 and 2011, the NDDC awarded some contracts in Delta State .N1.37 billion was supposedly spent on water projects. An investigation report was carried out towards the end of last year to look at these water projects. Of these, eleven of the projects listed as completed were abandoned.  In view of this, what are your expectations from the forensic audit?.

Answer: These cases that you are talking about have nothing to do with the present Interim Management Committee. We were not there at that time. Since we came on board, the IMC has not awarded any contract. The only contract that we have awarded is the Covid-19 contract approved by the President. So the ones you are talking about like water hyacinth,  river desilting etc, the payments were not made by us. It has nothing to do with us and that is part of what the forensic audit is unravelling.

The reason some people are fighting is that they are scared that the forensic audit is unveiling this already and they are doing everything to stop the forensic audit. They want to smear the IMC enough for people to say that the forensic audit is not necessary. Where were the two Chairmen of the National Assembly Committee before now, why didn’t they institute this Adhoc probe before now?  From 2001 – 2019, why had they not thought it necessary to investigate what was going on in the NDDC, but when we came on board we said it cannot be business as usual. The Minister gave us a marching order to stop corruption in the NDDC. So the N1 billion monthly payment to an individual has been stopped. The water hyacinth scam has stopped. The ghost trainings that they used to do has been stopped. River desilting contracts and other avenues of fleecing the Commission has been stopped. The payments we have made are verified commitments. Every Kobo we have spent, we will account for it.

Question: You have mentioned the names of some persons and the Chairmen of the Committees of Niger Delta in the National Assembly. Do you have any facts to buttress your point?

Answer: In 2018 a contract was awarded for N3.7 billion. The contract was for the supply of plastic chairs and desks to schools in the Niger Delta. The contract was awarded to a Senator. The same commission that awarded the contract gave stores receipt to say that the chairs and tables were supplied to Aguede Akwis, Benin Express Way, Okpanam before Wichtech Aluminium Company. Who owns the store where NDDC supposedly supplied the chairs to?. Who received them? This matter is already before the anti-graft agencies.

What we plead with Nigerians, the President of the Senate and the Speaker is to allow the forensic audit to take its course. Let them not distract us from what Mr President has ordered. We are open to investigation today or forever. If at the end of any investigation I am indicted let me go in for it. When I speak, I speak the truth and I will leave this office full of confidence that I have had an opportunity to serve the people of Niger Delta. We are liberating the NDDC. What use to happen in the past won’t happen again.

When a committee chairman will have 12 people in NDDC carrying files from table to table. This is when the Minister with the IMC said this must stop. You cannot go to NIMASA, you can go to Central Bank, you cannot go to NNPC and do that. So don’t come and do it here. Enough is Enough, if they like, they can use the social media and the mainstream media to blackmail us. It will not work. Every payment that we have made can be verified and confirmed. The Honourable Minister has said go and work and stop the corruption in that place. The IMC will do just that. The IMC has not paid for water hyacinth.

The problem we have with the two chairmen of the Committees on Niger Delta is that when we submitted our budget, they vandalized our budget, they raped our budget. For 2019 we have had additions that they made to our budget. We submitted the 2020 budget over two months ago, nothing has been done about it. The two Committee Chairmen sat on it, asking for all manner of things and we said No. NDDC must be allowed to function. The purpose for which it was instituted must be realized. I call on Niger Deltans to be alert to see how this works out . When the forensic audit is concluded, Nigerians will be shocked by the discoveries.  The reason I am calling these names is that we have facts and documents.

We had a meeting over the virement of some projects with the Chairman, House Committee of NDDC.  It was resolved that I should sit down with the chairman of the House of the committee. We told them that this is what you have done to the budget and it is not possible. We have to rework it. And the Chairman agreed and said we should go and bring a letter of virement. The letter of virement is normally routed from the Minister to the President and then to the National Assembly. And they said as you are routing the letter to the President let us have an advanced copy so that we can work on it. The issue of virements are they payments? We will not be distracted.

Question: Who are the forensic auditors? What have they found out? Why has anybody not been arrested? Can you tell us more?

Answer: The forensic audit is different from the normal audit and there are laws governing the country. You have to pass through due process. For the forensic audit to become legal you have to have the buy-in of the Auditor General of the Federation, which we have already done.  You have to get the due process certification which we have already done. You have to also get the approval of the Federal Executive Council which has also been approved and given us the go-ahead. These international audit firms have been engaged to carry out a forensic audit. They don’t go shouting. They are doing it quietly.  As we speak, a lot of properties, hotels have been seized. It is ongoing. Contractors who were paid for jobs not done are jittery. When we handed over all the documents of the commission’s projects to the lead forensic auditor, it was shown on national television. Immediately after that hell was let loose and those who have benefitted from the corrupt system started sponsoring smear campaigns against the Minister and the Interim Management Committee because they know that their end had come.

Question: Some people are saying that the interim Management Committee should not be involved in the forensic audit in any way. That the audit should be a completely independent exercise. And we know that the Accountant General of the Federation has had cause to raise a number of questions about the IMC in regards to the headquarters building. What are the details and do you agree that the IMC should not be involved in the audit?

Answer: The query you saw on the internet is a very big lie. It is fake news. There is nothing like that. It is the same people who concocted it. As an investigative journalist go and ask the Accountant General or the Auditor General if anything like that exists. They have never raised such issues because all due processes have been followed. It is non-existent.

About the Headquarters building, when the contract was awarded during this period of OMPADEC. it was awarded for only N400 million then, over 20 years ago. This was far before Senator Akpabio became Minister, during the tenure of  Obong Nsima Ekere as MD when pastor Usani Usani was the Minister. They took a memo to the Federal Executive Council that they needed to review the contract and change the contractor since the contractor that handled it didn’t have the capacity to deliver it. It was awarded to a new contractor. By this time Senator Akpabio was Minority Leader in the Senate.

When Akpabio came in, the NDDC was paying N300 million annually as rent for the present headquarters building. Meanwhile, nobody knows where this money goes to because the Rivers State Government said the building was given to the NDDC free of charge. Which means somebody is sitting on N300 million every year.  Senator Akpabio said No, that we can’t continue like that. And gave us the marching order to work day and night to complete the headquarters building. As we speak if not for the coronavirus pandemic, the headquarters building would have been commissioned. When the sponsors of falsehood write that it is 50 percent completed, please I challenge you to go to Eastern By-pass in Port Harcourt and see the level of work there. All the Equipment are in place. All that is remaining is furnishing because we don’t want to commission an empty building. We have concluded arrangements for the furnishing.

When the headquarters building was awarded for N16 billion, Senator Akpabio was in the opposition indeed the Senate Minority Leader. So how could Akpabio had influenced the award of the contract. Since Akpabio became the minister the headquarters building contract has not been reviewed.

On the forensic audit, how independent can it be when you have the big four international audit firms in the world involved in the process. These are not persons you can bend. The people who have collected money without executing the jobs don’t want these international companies to do it. They wanted to give it to charlatans so that they can compromise them but we said No.

If Senator Akpabio wanted to steal money the N1 billion that was paid out every month would have continued. If Senator Akpabio wanted to steal money the N3.7 billion that the chairman of the committee asked for would have been paid and shared to Akpabio. But we said No. We don’t want all these things. Mr President has confidence in us. We cannot betray it. On a normal day in the past,  if you go to NDDC head office you will see very many people trooping in there. If you go to NDDC today, we have cleared the place.

We have paid money that have been owed people especially those under N50 million. We have the list. Some of them borrowed money to execute these contracts and they were not paid. The Minister said help these people, verify their jobs and pay them and clear the place and there is joy in the Niger Delta. The luck we have is that we don’t have a mace in the NDDC. If we had a mace somebody would have come to steal it. There is no mace to be stolen.

Question: There are claims that the NDDC has not been properly funded. In your view how can the NDDC ensure proper autonomy?

Answer: First and foremost, if you are given One Naira and you cannot manage it , the tendency is that if you’re given One billion Naira you would also not be able to manage it. The first thing to do is to clean the place up and that is what the forensic audit hopes to achieve. Once we get it right then the money coming into the NDDC will be properly handled. The NDDC does not need a third party to collect statutory payment on our behalf. We will enforce the Act setting up the NDDC and when we enforce it, the  Federal Government will pay what they are owing, because the Federal Government is also owing. The oil companies are owing. When we aggregate all of them we can then go for regional projects.  If you look at what the two chairmen of the committees in the National Assembly did, all the regional projects of Mr President were removed from the budget. And as We speak go and ask them where the budget of 2020 is. We are still arguing about the 2019 budget in the middle of 2020. When are they going to give us our budget? I don’t mind leaving my present position but while I am there, I have to give a good account of myself.

Question: In the course of this interview you have severally mentioned Senator Akpabio. Some people have said that Senator Akpabio may be out on a witch hunt mission targeting past managing directors of the commission especially Obong Nsima Ekwere and Ms Joi Nunieh. What’s your response to these?

Answer: That is very laughable. Let me say this, the forensic audit was not initiated by Senator Akpabio. The forensic audit came as a result of the visit of the Governors of the nine states of the Niger Delta to Mr President. The Governors told Mr President that the NDDC was a can of worms and that the corruption there must be unearthed. Did Senator Akpabio send the Governors to go to the President? The President accepted what the Governors said and instituted the forensic audit. How does that target Nsima Ekwere? Don’t forget that Nsima Ekwere and Akpabio worked together during the last election not too long ago.

How can the minister witch hunt Joi Nunieh? For what reason? The Minister has been a Commissioner, a two-term Governor, a Minority Leader in the Senate and now the Minister. So is Akpabio envious of Nsima Ekwere and Joi Nunieh that he would witch hunt them. What did they do to him. What is the area of conflict? This is just the figment of the imagination of those peddling it. And this is how they start the problem. They will go and tell Nsima Ekwere one thing, tell Joi Nunieh another and tell the minister another thing. Their target is to destabilize the IMC, destabilize the minister and the NDDC so that the ongoing forensic audit cannot see the light of the day. It will not happen. We shall not be distracted.

Question: How buoyant is the NDDC? How much is in the account of NDDC? How solvent is the NDDC right now?

Answer: The NDDC has a commitment of #3 trillion. And this where your question becomes very relevant. The two chairmen of the committees of Niger Delta without the knowledge of the other members colluded and committed the NDDC to over #2 trillion. Imagine that we have #2 trillion now, and started paying debts it will not change the landscape of Niger Delta. So the NDDC is not buoyant because the commitment is enormous. But what we have done is to go through those contracts that were awarded without due process with fine com, make sure that we cancel them within the limits of the law. Many contractors have gone to court and got judgement against the NDDC.

The ones that are genuine and verified, we pay them. What we do is to go to the field and verify the jobs. What is remaining is for a forensic audit to get those who have either been overpaid or paid for jobs not done so that we can go and recover our money. You will see the amount of money that will be recovered at the end of the forensic audit exercise. Even now, look at the properties and the hotels that the authorities have confiscated.  This is why we are encouraged to keep doing what we are doing. We are not listening to this smear campaign because they are distractions. But it’s getting out of hand. With due respect, the National Assembly is an institution I belong to and I will hate to desperate it. And I will not. I have been there as a member. I have been there as a Presidential Liaison Officer to the President of this country and it is a place I understand the working. The Speaker and the Senate President and the Members don’t know anything that is happening there. It is just the two Chairmen of the Committees. Let me point out something to you. From 1999 till date the Chairmen of the House Committee on Niger Delta have been from Delta state. Today a PDP senator is the Chairman of such an important committee. Why? How does he merit it? Why should it be him? Knowing too well that as an opposition he will not protect the Presidents interest in the Niger Delta. Knowing too well that the president loves the Niger Delta, why would a PDP senator be saddled on us. We have competent and reliable senators from the region who can hold the position. Why do you distract us? These are people who have made it impossible for us to have our budget and this is very annoying. Look at what they injected into the budget about N85 billion. They removed the regional project of Mr President. And then you gather all manner of people in social media to throw stones at us when you know the truth.

Question: If you say the past management are responsible for the corruption we are seeing, why haven’t they been reported to the EFCC?

Answer: The case of the supply of chairs and desks that I’ve shown you, has been reported to anti-corruption agencies because you cannot imagine getting a contract from the commission and you supply the same items to yourself. Can you beat that?

Question:  I see that you have a file that contains documentary evidence. Those documents may be useful in court to prove cases against the people who have defrauded the NDDC.  I raise these concerns because recently Prof  Pomdei raised an alarm that there would be arson.

Answer: it was the Inspector General of Police who wrote to us and sent the Rivers State Commissioner of Police to alert us that some of these dubious contractors were planning to burn down the headquarters of NDDC. We have sent all the documents to the forensic auditors and they are safe. I had to retrieve those ones because of this interview. The public must know what is going on. There is no single Kobo missing in NDDC. I repeat we have not awarded any contract. We have not paid for river desilting. We have not paid for water hyacinth. The payments we have made are recurrent because people must earn salaries. Before we came in, the service providers were owed three to four years some went to court and we have paid. The jobs we have verified and confirmed we have paid. And that is all we have done.

Mark this date. On the 15th of May 2019. NDDC paid N50 billion in one day to NGO’S. If you see what has happened in the NDDC you will weep for this country. That is why they don’t want the forensic audit to see the light of the day. But Mr  President is determined. The Minister is determined and we shall provide the enabling environment for the forensic audit to be concluded.

Question: An NGO has described as suspicious the refusal of the Minister to allow the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to participate in the forensic audit. What’s your comment on this?

Answer: We are not averse to anybody joining. We started the forensic audit by inviting the anti-graft agencies like the EFFC, DSS etc to join us. The NFIU  normally does not participate in audits but we don’t mind at all because they are also following. They follow the account of everybody. Have you seen a commission that signs an agreement without a date? All the agreements in NDDC none is date. Can you believe it? All the agreements for contracts,  agreements for consultancy etc none has a date. That is the NDDC that we took over from.

Question: What is the way forward? Some people have suggested that the way forward. Some say the IMC should be disbanded or the NDDC should be scrapped in the long term. What’s your take?.

Answer: The first is forensic audit. The second is a forensic audit and the third is a forensic audit. The reason they say the IMC should be disbanded, they know that if the IMC is disbanded you will disorganize the forensic audit. They don’t want it. Every attempt to induce and compromise us and make us scuttle the forensic audit have failed. The only hope they have to stop the forensic audit is to ask for the scrap of the IMC. Any person asking for the scrapping of the IMC is complicit in this affair.

Even if you want to scrap the NDDC or wind it down, you must audit it. So the forensic audit is central. It must happen. And the reason that you cannot scrap the NDDC is that you cannot throw away the baby with the bathwater. We want autonomy for NDDC so that NDDC can prepare a budget and send it to the National Assembly and it will come out not distorted by any chairman.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he senate committee on Niger Delta affairs says no amount of intimidation or
blackmail will stop it from probing the interim management committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The committee said this in response to an allegation made by Kemebradikumo Pondei, acting managing director of the commission.

Pondei accused the lawmakers of inserting over 500 non-existent projects in the commission’s budget.

Before then, the national assembly accused the interim committee of mismanaging over N40 billion and passed resolutions that it would investigate.

But speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the committee, said Pondei’s allegations are nothing but “mere fabrications.”

“We are responding to the allegations of the IMC to correct the misrepresentation. If they claim that some 1000 jobs were given to any Senator, we challenge the IMC members to compile the list of these contracts and publish them,” Nwaoboshi said.

“Also, the EFCC, police or ICPC should be reached to investigate those claims instead of blackmailing anybody.

“If members of the IMC know that their hands are clean, they don’t need to panic or resort to blackmail which would not in any way deter the already mandated investigative committees of the national assembly from carrying out their legitimate assignments.

“IMC must be ready to submit itself for thorough investigation by committees already assigned for that by both chambers of the national assembly.

“The allegations of balkanisation of budget just came because the IMC members were asked to appear before the ad hoc committee to answer questions.

“The national assembly has the right to appropriate and carry out oversight functions on the Niger Delta ministry, and the NDDC. So, no amount of intimidation or blackmail will stop us.”

The senator added that he had deleted the phone number of Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, over allegations that he is allegedly fuelling the crisis between NDDC and the national assembly.

‘COUNT ME OUT’

In a related development, Nelson Agbamuche, a contractor, has asked Cairo Ojougboh, NDDC’s acting director of projects, to leave him out of his accusations.

Like Pondei, Ojougboh has also reportedly levelled corruption allegations against contractors and members of the national assembly.

The contractor said the acting director alleged that he was given 1,000 projects on behalf of some people.

“He alleged I was given 1,000 projects on behalf of some people,” Agbamuche said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This is ridiculous! Since 2012 that I started bidding for jobs in NDDC, we have NOT even won up to 50 or 100 jobs. Is he not having access to files in the office?

“Can Nigerians please help me announce to all of them to leave me out of their battle. I do not have anything to do with any of those allegations; they are baseless and very fallacious.”

In October 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a forensic probe of the commission’s activities from 2001 to 2019.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Senate and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) bickered yesterday over alleged inclusion of projects worth N80 billion in the commission’s 2019 Budget by the National Assembly without the consent of the executive.

The Executive Director, Projects (EDP) of NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, had made the allegations yesterday while featuring on The Morning Show, a programme on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THSIDAY Newspapers.

He stated that unknown to the National Assembly and other members of the Committee on NDDC in both Senate and the House of Representatives, the two chairmen, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi and Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, “raised and vandalised” the commission’s 2019 budget.

But in a swift reaction, the Senate said the commission was exhibiting ignorance about the constitutional power of the National Assembly to perform oversight functions over all entities that expend national funds, particularly to prevent or detect corruption.

But Ojougboh said: “The problem we have with these two chairmen is that when we submitted our budget, they vandalised our budget, they raised our 2019 budget. NDDC must be allowed to function. The purpose of which it was instituted must be allowed to happen.

“If you look at what the two chairmen did in the National Assembly, all the regional projects of Mr. President were removed from the budget. Look at what they infused and injected the total sum that they brought is N85 billion new projects. They removed annoyingly the regional projects of Mr. President. When the forensic audit is concluded, Nigerians would be shocked.”

The director added that the commission’s 2020 budget estimate submitted to the National Assembly two months ago had not been worked on due to the insistence of the two NDDC committees’ chairmen.

“We submitted our 2020 budget two months ago; nothing has been done about it. The two committee chairmen sat on it, asking for anything they want to ask for and we said no, it cannot happen.

“As we speak the budget of 2020, go and ask them, where is it, by now we should have had the budget. The 2019 budget we are arguing about in the middle of 2020, this is May going to June, when are they going to give us our budget? Ask the chairmen,” he said.

According to him, the forensic auditing is already on after it passed through due process and is being carried out by a reputable international company.

Ojougboh added: “You have to pass through due process for the forensic audit to become legal. You have to have the backing of the Auditor-General of the Federation, which we have already done. You have to get the due process certification, which we have already done; we have to also go to the Federal Executive Council that has also approved and given us the go-ahead.

“As we speak, a lot of monies, hotels, property have been seized and these people – contractors who have taken money and they didn’t do the job, the people who championed this corrupt thing, all of them are jittery. When we handed over all the documents of the NDDC to the forensic auditors it was on national TV; heavens were let loose, for they know the end is coming.”

He noted that the Interim Management Committee (IMC) was being attacked because it said standards must be delivered as regards the forensic audit of the commission.

He said some people who are afraid do not want the international company handling the audit to do it, because they wanted to give it to a charlatan.

He said: “If Godswill Akpabio (Minister of Niger Delta Affairs) wanted to steal money, the N1 billion every month would have continued; if Akpabio wanted to steal money, the N3.7 billion that the chairman asked would have been paid; they would have shared to Akpabio, but we said no, we want to rescue the NDDC.”

On the allegation that Akpabio was out on a witch-hunt mission, targeting past managing directors, Ojougboh described it as laughable.

He explained that the forensic audit was not initiated by Akpabio, but it came as a result of the visit of the governors of the nine oil-producing Niger Delta states to Buhari, where he was told about the massive corruption in the commission, adding that the president acted on that and instituted the probe.

On the issue of alleged N40 billion fraud in the commission, Ojougboh said it was not possible to squander that huge amount of money, especially with the necessary checks and balances (Remita) now in place.

He said all the money spent by the commission and how it was spent could be verified from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant General of the Federation.

He said: “I don’t mind leaving this seat I’m sitting on; I must give a good account of myself. I have lived all my life based on my integrity and my values that mean more to me. I have an integrity and a name to protect; nobody can just jump and say I have squandered N40 billion; where? How? Enough is enough.”

Reacting to NDDC director’s allegation, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, told THISDAY that Ojougboh “must be exhibiting ignorance about the constitutional power of the National Assembly to perform oversight functions over all entities that expend national funds, particularly to prevent or detect corruption.”

According to him, “The integrity of the Senate is not here an issue by the fact that someone is obviously ignorant of the workings of the Senate or being mischievous. The Senate is acting within its constitutional mandate and the appropriate forum to challenge any perceived infraction by the National Assembly is to challenge same in a court of law not by wild claims on a television station.”

He said the National Assembly would wait to see if the NDDC will fail to honour the invitation to be extended to it by the ad hoc committee probing the alleged N40 billion fraud at the commission.

“We wait to see whether the NDDC will refuse any invitation by the ad hoc committee when the work of the committee resumes,” he said.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he ongoing probe of an alleged N40 billion fraud at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the Senate amid the forensic audit ordered by the President Muhammadu Buhari suggests there are many forces fighting for the soul of the interventionist agency.

As Nigerians await the outcome of the ongoing investigation by members of the National Assembly into an alleged N40 billion fraud at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), there are feelers that the allegation might be the handiwork of some people to scuttle the forensic audit of the account of the commission ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Senate had, at its sitting on May 5, 2020, considered a motion on the urgent need to investigate reports of alleged financial recklessness in the NDDC and resolved to constitute an ad hoc committee to probe the allegation. The committee is expected to carry out a holistic investigation into all issues relating but not limited to the alleged misapplication and misappropriation of the N40 billion by the Interim Management Committee of the commission within three months.

Pursuant to the resolution, the Senate ad hoc committee probing the misappropriation has demanded a written explanation from the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, over his alleged involvement in the purported scam. The Chairman of the ad hoc panel, Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, in a letter, reportedly directed the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, as well as the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to also submit their memorandums.

Adetunmbi also asked the Central Bank of Nigeria, Bureau of Public Enterprise, the NDDC Interim Management and the commission’s previous boards, among others, to submit their responses in writing while the nine Niger Delta governors, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, traditional rulers and contractors are to submit memorandums.

He said their written submissions, which will be defended under oath at the investigative public hearing, should be submitted not later than June 8.

The House of Representatives has begun an investigation into the same allegation.

But while it appears that the lawmakers have now risen to their constitutional mandate and are eager to conduct a holistic probe of the commission’s activities, sources familiar with the issue told The Guardian that they are being driven by selfish tendencies. According to the sources, those behind the allegations are simply not comfortable with the insistence of the Presidency on auditing the account of the commission, and therefore wants to bring down all those driving the process as part of their strategy to scuttle the move.

“Before anything, there is the need to make a point about the nature of corruption and its agents, which Nigeria has on its hands. They both act and work with the fullest of temerity by which they are the first to launch offensives, especially when they are filled with the fear of getting exposed,” said a source.

The source added: “They have therefore mastered this modus operandi and have grown so big doing this, that they appear to be untouchable. No wonder, therefore, President Buhari never used two words in telling the nature of this pandemic for the whole of the period that his presidential campaign lasted in 2014/2015. He meant these words, ‘If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will Nigeria.’

“And because of the daring nature of this economic parasite, the most targeted by the corrupt militia groups, scattered everywhere, is he who attempts to stop corruption.”

The source emphasised that the government’s intention to use the NDDC as an instrument to transform the lives of citizens in the Niger Delta region had been truncated over the years due to corruption.

“NDDC was established to empower and transform the lives of Niger Deltans exactly to that Dubai height of lifestyle, if not more. Unknown to many, this commission, far from expectations and away from prying eyes, is the epicentre of corruption in Nigeria. Any such body, which continues to deprive the people their chances to quality life as greatly as the Federal Government envisaged, due to the high level of corruption that has resided in it, should not be allowed to continue. And if it must continue, then it must be made to exist well and free of corruption so that it can serve the purpose for which it was established.

“In the wisdom of President Buhari, this is where the current NDDC’s Interim Management Committee (IMC) comes to show and deserve the cooperation and support of all. To disagree with the decision of President Buhari in committing to rid the NDDC of corruption is to take sides with corruption against the ordinary people of Niger Delta. This forensic audit, ordered by Mr. President, is a clean up that must be done.”

The source, therefore, dismissed reports of alleged misappropriation of funds at the commission as a concerted effort to smear the image of Acting Managing Director of NDDC, Professor Pondei Kemebradikumor; Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio and Acting Executive Director, Projects, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh.

The source said the allegations amounted to an attempt to challenge and discredit “even the very authority and integrity of President Buhari, who set up the IMC that the professor heads with a term of reference.”

He added: “The truth is that those who are attacking Akpabio, Pondei and Ojougboh over this NDDC forensic audit, are not really attacking the minister and the NDDC team. They are actually attacking President Buhari who sent them on a national assignment.

“It is really ominous to find out in the course of our investigations that people pushing all of these negative impressions and ‘fake stories’ into the airwaves and internet to destroy Akpabio and the Pondei-led team, are found to be aides to a principal officer of the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly from the Niger Delta.

“They are also ensuring that they dominate the social media so that the vulnerable visitors to those platforms who do not ask questions will take what they spew out, hook, line and sinker in a one-way traffic manner to go on polluting the airspace with massive misinformation.

“Further investigations reveal that the whole problem started when, having been inundated with several complaints and calls about how over N300 billion pumped in to develop the Niger Delta via the NDDC had gone with the wind, with nothing to show except that poverty became the lots of the helpless people who were already living like having no solution to their problems, President Buhari decided to bring change to the commission.

“What the President did was to dissolve the existing management and then appoint a new one. The said principal officer of the Red Chamber had hoped to nominate his cronies, who were allegedly in the same system that ran NDDC down, leading to the presidential forensic audit hammer, to be in the new management to be set up. President Buhari declined, insisting on doing his job of appointing as given to him by the constitution. That was how the Pondei-led IMC was set up. And based on citizens’ recommendation, the President approved a forensic audit of the NDDC from years back.”

Another source in the Niger Delta said: “Let me tell you the truth, before now, there used to be a very massive budget for NDDC. Those who fed fat on those budgets and who would not allow them to have the impact they were meant for on the people are boys to a very prominent politician who was governor and still wields relevant political influence in the political and economic affairs, not only in the Niger Delta, but also in Nigeria. These are the ones raising hell against the President through their fight against Akpabio, Ojougboh and Pondei.”

Another source questioned the veracity of those who have been faulting the President’s decision, saying: “The President set up a team, you say it is illegal. Where did you get your power from to denigrate the power of the President to appoint? These elements have no personal problem but official issues against the ongoing anti-corruption wave in the NDDC. They have found Akpabio to be doing what no Niger Delta Minister has ever had the guts to do.

“So, these already established mafias with heavy political and financial missiles at their disposal to deploy in support and defence of their corruption are simply working hard to show Mr. President that it is not doable.

“One of their frustrating tactics is the claim that the Senate, ICPC, NIA and other agencies have probed the NDDC and that their report will be out soon. But our investigations showed that there will be no report from any other team of investigators except the forensic audit of experts approved by the President and the President alone.

“Unfortunately also for them, Akpabio, perhaps unknown to these elements, is unassailable by any corrupt coalition because the presidential spirit with which he operates is one that fears no mafia but God. Not even when it comes to mind how a predecessor tried to truncate a presidential election result, which one later found out to be an effort to cover up his own bleeding on the innocent souls of Niger Deltans.

“The effort by these media agents is to pump as many misrepresentations as possible to the airwaves and the internet so that even the effort to uncover their unpardonable economic pandemic in the region will not be easily possible.

“But President Muhammadu Buhari, who approved the forensic audit of the NDDC, is not guided by mischievous internet e-rats, not even by any mainstream media fliers. So, the truth will unfold soonest as the presidential measures will play out. President Buhari will have his way. Niger Delta will be better off for it,” the source submitted.