The Executive Director of Projects in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, has accused past managements of the Commission of being part of the massive fraud that has brought the commission to its knees.
Ojougboh, in an interview stated that the Interim Management Committee headed by Prof. Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, inherited a commission where agreements were signed and contracts awarded without dates.
His words: “Have you seen a commission that signs an agreement without a date? All the agreements in NDDC none is dated. 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.”
He also accused the committees of the National Assembly on the Niger Delta of being part of the fraud that went on at the Commission for years.
Ojougboh insisted that despite efforts to scuttle the forensic auditing of the commission by those who have skeletons in their cupboards, it would go on.
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He described as “very laughable” claims by some people that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio may be out on a witch hunt mission targeting past managing directors of the commission especially Nsima Ekere and Ms Joi Nunieh.
He explained that the forensic audit was not initiated by Akpabio but came as a result of the visit of the Governors of the nine states of the Niger Delta to President Muhammadu Buhari, who told him the commission was a can of worms, and that the corruption there must be unearthed.
“How does that target Nsima Ekere? Don’t forget that Nsima Ekere 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 had been a Commissioner, a two term Governor, a Minority Leader in the Senate and now the Minister. So is Akpabio envious of Nsima Ekere 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 problem. They will go and tell Nsima Ekere 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,” Ojougboh stated.
Read full interview shortly.
