Godswill Akpabio, minister
of Niger Delta affairs, got a N300 million contract for the fencing of
Federal Polytechnic Ukana, Akwa Ibom, (N200 million), and Federal Government
College, Ikot Ekpene (N100 million), according to the senate committee on
Niger Delta.
According to Peter
Nwaoboshi, chairman of the committee, Akoabio got the contracts from the Niger
Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
In a letter seen by
TheCable, in 2017 when Akpabio was the senator representing Akwa Ibom north-west,
he requested a N500 million contract from the NCDC.
Aside the N300 million for
fencing, N150 million was for entrepreneurship training on the use of modern
farming implements for youths and women of Akwa Ibom north-west senatorial
district.
Another N50 million was for
the renovation of a hostel at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu state.
All the projects were
requested to be put into the NDDC budget at the time, according to Nwaoboshi.
Nwaobosho told journalists
on Wednesday that the contracts were fully paid for but there was nothing to
show for it.
“Findings show that while
there was no physical evidence of implementation of these projects, checks show
contracts were awarded and fully paid for,” Nwaoboshi said.
“Such practices have turned
the region to sites of abandoned projects.”
After President Muhammadu
Buhari ordered a forensic audit of the operations of the NDDC from its
inception in 2001 to 2019, Akpabio lamented that the commission had become
known for abandoned projects as politicians “turned it to their ATM“.
“We have also had a lot of
political interference, people have not allowed NDDC to work as it ought to,
people coming with ideas not to move the region forward but to move their
pockets forward. It has always been so… I think people were treating the place
as an ATM, where you just walk in there to go and pluck money and go away, I
don’t think they were looking at it as an interventionist agency,” he had said.
The president has appointed
an interim management committee for the commission. However, the senate raised
a panel to probe the committee over alleged mismanagement of N40 billion.
But Kemebradikumo
Pondei, acting managing director of the NDDC, had accused the federal lawmakers
of witch-hunt, alleging that they inserted non-existent projects in the budget
of the commission.
On Tuesday, Akpabio said he
would not allow
the NDDC to be raped under his watch.
He was responding to the
allegation of Nwaoboshi, who initially spoke of the N500 million contract but
did not release any document.
In his response, Akpabio had
said the letter eventually released by Nwaoboshi was on recommendations
for zonal intervention projects as requested by the leadership of the senate.
Source: thecable
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