THE Interim Management Committee, IMC, of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has said that if it releases the list of those involved in looting the commission, the country will break.
The IMC has also accused members of the National Assembly of plotting to stall the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Executive Director in charge of Projects at the NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, who made the allegation while speaking to Vanguard in Abuja, said that Nigeria would be shocked if the commission releases the names and calibre of persons involved in contract scam in 2017 and 2019 especially among members of the National Assembly.
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Recall that the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday last week approved the forensic auditing of about 12 thousand NDDC contracts.
But Dr. Ojougboh alleged that the recent pressure by the National Assembly to probe the activities of the IMC was instigated by the fear of the forensic audit.
He said that the mission of the IMC to the NDDC and the Niger Delta region is to ensure that every naira that had been put into the region through the commission is accounted for and vowed that the committee would dare every odd to ensure that the mission is accomplished, not minding whose ox is gored.
The NDDC Executive Director on Projects took a swipe at the National Assembly for condemning the N51 million monthly imprest for the office of the Acting Managing Director of the Commission and the N18 million imprest for his office, saying that such monies are not personal money but for the upkeep of the place especially in security.
He alleged that a highly placed member of the National Assembly from the South-South whom he accused working against the IMC has a cumulative imprest of about N100 million monthly without the kind of security challenges the NDDC management faces on daily basis.
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According to him, “My MD feeds 100 policemen every day and in Port Harcourt as an executive of NDDC, you need security more than anything, till tomorrow, you know of it. When they are sending these policemen, the instruction is fed them, cater for them, that is what is in the letter the police hierarchy sent.
“So people are talking about 51 million of imprest for the MD, it is a security vote, it’s not for his personal pocket, the money does not go to the MD’s account. Myself, N18 million, it does not go to my account, it goes for security and other expenses and it is retired, there is no fraud in it.”
He said when President Buhari nominated them, and they arrived at NDDC office Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, the first thing they noticed was that the two Chairmen (NDDC Committee) in the National Assembly, were the “De Facto management, managers and the executive of NDDC.”
He said as a former member of the National Assembly and a former liaison officer to the President, he has been in the Chambers and in all his life he has been in government since 1999 till date. “So I know what time of the day it is in politics and in governance. So we told them it cannot be business as usual, then they said we must leave.”
