NDDC: EFCC, ICPC to Probe Akpabio Over Corruption Allegations
POLITICS DIGEST – The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio, has been dragged before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) on allegations of corruption and financial recklessness in the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The petition to the anti-Corruption agencies was dated April 07 2020 and signed by Mrs Hosanna Oluyemi Jalogho-Williams. Both agencies have acknowledged receiving the petition.
Titled ‘Petition Against Chief Godswill Akpabio over Gross Mismanagement, Financial Recklessness, Fraud and Indebtedness of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Under His Supervision/Leadership as Minister for Niger Delta Affairs’, the five-page document details allegations of graft and financial recklessness in the NDDC orchestrated by Chief Akpabio and the interim management committee.
Read Also:
According to the petitioner, NDDC is in a state of “indebtedness because funds are being looted and siphoned using three forms of phoney contracts, namely: Clearing of Water Hyacinths; Emergency Jobs; and River De-silting,” which it claimed are “phoney contracts used by corrupt and greedy leaders at the helm of affairs within the NDDC and their cohorts in the Presidency to steal the monies that have been voted to improve the livelihood of the Niger Delta people.”
It added that the contracts did not follow the “regulations and approved threshold stipulated by the Bureau of Public Procurements (BPP), as they are not genuine and cannot be verified.” Yet, these contracts are prioritised for payments “because the funds are circling back to the corrupt executives, while payments of genuine contractors with jobs that have followed due process, have been completed and verified are ignored and left to suffer,” because the “well-intentioned forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of the looting of NDDC’s resources has become a ruse; the level of looting currently going on in the Commission has gone from bad to worse.”
It stated that “with the appointment of Chief Akpabio as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and the subsequent handover of the Commission to his Ministry for supervision, we thought that the so called celebrated Forensic Audit ordered by Mr. President would put an end to the looting through these phoney contract. Sadly, Chief Akpabio has instead taken advantage of the current rot within the NDDC and perfected an existing small-scale looting, that he is supposed to investigate and flush out with the supposed Forensic Audit, to a full-blown open corruption mafia-style ring.”
