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By Stephen Ubanna And Emmanuel Ufot
Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria and now minister of ministry of Niger Delta has a big task at hand: to convince Nigerians that the damning allegations of Fraud and interference in the management of the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, levelled against him by Joy Nunieh, a former Managing Director of the Commission were false.
Nunieh, had told Journalists at the Senate ad-hoc Investigative hearing on NNDC that Akpabio had ‘’engineered her removal from office by President Muhammadu Buhari because she could not do his billings .
The allegations of fraud and counter-allegations of fraud between the duo may have informed why the Ahmad Lawan led Senate had set up a seven-man ad-hoc Committee to Investigate the alleged financial recklessness of the NDDC I,nterim Management Committee, IMC, to the tune of N40 billion.
The Senate ad-hoc Committee Investigative hearing may have provided AN opportunity for Nunieh, the former NDDC , boss, to open up on Akapbio. An aggrieved Nunieh had alluded to the fact that on the day of going for their inauguration, the Akwa Ibom state born politician had told her in the car that,’’ madam MD, that if you don’t do what I say, the same pen with which I used to sign your appointment letter, will be the same pen that I will use to remove you’’. She disclosed that the first ministerial order the minister gave to her was that when she gets to PortHarcourt , I should change the dollars in the NDDC account. ’’I was scared to do that ‘’, she remarked.
She disclosed that the minister came to the oil city , two days after the inauguration, and still enjoined her to ensure she change the dollars in the Commission’s Account and also remove Alhaji Kaltungo, a Lawyer and to Head of the legal Team by sending him on Compulsory retirement. ’’We cannot have a northerner be the Head of the legal Unit’’, she claimed the minister had said. The minister has denied the allegations, stressing that as a governor of Akwa Ibom state, he used his position to fight for the interest of northerners in the state.
Nunieh, who was out to do battle with Akpabio, had said that he told her to remove the other Directors in the Commission who refused to take his instructions during the time of Mrs. Akwagaga Enyia in 2019 . She may have shocked Nigerians when she told members of the Committee that the minister demanded $1 million from the Commission to use for his Christmas.
More revealing was the damning accusations that the NDDC Headquarters has remained unconnected to the national grid because the girlfriend is the major supplier of the diesel used to power the agency generating sets. She claimed that she had made a case for the diesel supply Contract to the agency to be handed over to the young boys in the nine states of the Niger Delta region but the minister will not take it.
The former NDDC boss said the minister who had visited the NNDC Corporate Headquarters in PortHarcourt had come with a draft letter which she had earlier submitted to the Senate ad-hoc Committee requesting that ‘’ I should write and put it on my letter head implicating Peter Nwaoboshi, Chairman , Senate Committee on NNDC, of collecting contracts from the Intervention agency. ‘’ I refused to do it because as a Lawyer whoever alleges must have a proof’’, she has said. She disclosed that the minister took offence for her action, accusing her of being ’’ungrateful’’.
The crisis of Confidence between the duo was said to have started when she refused to sign the covering letter which she said was basically to avoid giving the impression to the President that all the information contained in the petition alleging that Senator Nwaoboshi was collecting contracts from NDDC was true. Instead of signing the covering letter , she was said to have sent a letter to the Committee stating that Cairo Ojuogboh, Executive Director who should know about projects has left NDDC.
But a school of thought said the frosty relationship between the duo started when the minister took the the decision to go ahead with the forensic audit on the activities of the Commission when he assumed office. The forensic audit which was okayed by the Katsina state born Nigerian President was said to have exposed the gross mismanagement of funds in the intervention agency which may have led to the removal of Nuneh.
In anger, she had accused Akpabio of collecting 30 contracts for the distilling and water Hyacinth. She had said that the contracts were awarded when the former oil –rich Akwa Ibom state governor and Festus Keyamo, a Lawyer and minister of State , ministry of Niger Delta, had their first meeting with the Management at the Commission in Port Harcourt.
Apparently to avoid being roped into the fraud, she had said that Linus, the then Executive Director, Finance, had refused to sign the Contract documents because it did not follow the due process. According to her the budget approved for the distilling and water Hyacinth contracts was between N3 billion and N5 billion.
She may have shocked Nigerians when she said the minister also asked her to implicate the Chairman of House Committee on NDDC who had gone to Ondo, his home state for a meeting to plot against him. She noted that before her assumption of office, the Commission had over stretched its financial limit with about N50 billion for distilling and water Hyacinth Contracts alone.
The financial situationof the Commission was so bad that the National Assembly was said to have sent a strongly worded letter to it, advising the Intervention agency never to stop any further payment on distilling and water Hyacinth contracts. Nunieh major worry in the Commission was that Akapbabio never signs any document but would push you to commit fraud.
She cited a Memo which the minister had asked her to raise in order to award an emergency contract for flood victims. She claimed that the minister had also directed her to include projects from the Refuge Commission in the list of the projects to be executed by the agency in the 201 9 budget. She had said that the minister had wanted her to swear an oath of secrecy when she turned down.
She has her reason for doing so. ‘’How do I put some of the projects of the Refuge Commission on the NDDC budget when we have many unexecuted projects in the region’’, she had querried. She noted that the relationship between Akabio and her office was getting so bad that they had a reconciliation meeting in the office of Sariki Abba, at the Presidential Villa but that was how far they could go. Abba is the Special Assistant to the President on Domestics Affairs.
While appearing at the Senate probe ad-hoc Committee, the Rivers state born former NDDC Managing Director had made other damning allegations against the minister. One of the allegations was the mismanagement of the agency N40 billion fund.
Critics see the dirty fight between Nunieh, a former political Appointtee and Managing Director of NNDC and Akpabio , as a show of shame. Akpabio who will not want his hard earned name to be rubbished by any political Appointee was said to have told the Senate Investigative Committee on NNDC, that he never requested and executed the Commission’s Contracts to the tune of N500 million as alleged. Recall thatNwaoboshi, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC, had accused the minister of securing the distilling and water Hyacinth Contracts without executing them. The minister who will not take it had rubbished the claim by the Senate Investigative Committee on the NDDC, that the Commission mismanaged N40 billion between 2019 and 2020.
The situation in NNDC , has become very worrisome in the recent time that Itse Sagay, a Professor and Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, has asked the President to remove all the Board members of the Commission and inject fresh hands.
NNDC: Akbabio And Joy Nunieh Uending Dirty Fight
By Stephen Ubanna and Emmanuel Ufot
Godswill Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa Ibom state, Senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria and now minister of ministry of Niger Delta has a big task at hand: to convince Nigerians that the damning allegations of Fraud and interference in the management of the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, levelled against him by Joy Nunieh, a former Managing Director of the Commission were false.
Nunieh, had told Journalists at the Senate ad-hoc Investigative hearing on NNDC that Akpabio had ‘’engineered her removal from office by President Muhammadu Buhari because she could not do his billings .
The allegations of fraud and counter-allegations of fraud between the duo may have informed why the Ahmad Lawan led Senate had set up a seven-man ad-hoc Committee to Investigate the alleged financial recklessness of the NDDC I,nterim Management Committee, IMC, to the tune of N40 billion.
The Senate ad-hoc Committee Investigative hearing may have provided AN opportunity for Nunieh, the former NDDC , boss, to open up on Akapbio. An aggrieved Nunieh had alluded to the fact that on the day of going for their inauguration, the Akwa Ibom state born politician had told her in the car that,’’ madam MD, that if you don’t do what I say, the same pen with which I used to sign your appointment letter, will be the same pen that I will use to remove you’’. She disclosed that the first ministerial order the minister gave to her was that when she gets to PortHarcourt , I should change the dollars in the NDDC account. ’’I was scared to do that ‘’, she remarked.
She disclosed that the minister came to the oil city , two days after the inauguration, and still enjoined her to ensure she change the dollars in the Commission’s Account and also remove Alhaji Kaltungo, a Lawyer and to Head of the legal Team by sending him on Compulsory retirement. ’’We cannot have a northerner be the Head of the legal Unit’’, she claimed the minister had said. The minister has denied the allegations, stressing that as a governor of Akwa Ibom state, he used his position to fight for the interest of northerners in the state.
Nunieh, who was out to do battle with Akpabio, had said that he told her to remove the other Directors in the Commission who refused to take his instructions during the time of Mrs. Akwagaga Enyia in 2019 . She may have shocked Nigerians when she told members of the Committee that the minister demanded $1 million from the Commission to use for his Christmas.
More revealing was the damning accusations that the NDDC Headquarters has remained unconnected to the national grid because the girlfriend is the major supplier of the diesel used to power the agency generating sets. She claimed that she had made a case for the diesel supply Contract to the agency to be handed over to the young boys in the nine states of the Niger Delta region but the minister will not take it.
The former NDDC boss said the minister who had visited the NNDC Corporate Headquarters in PortHarcourt had come with a draft letter which she had earlier submitted to the Senate ad-hoc Committee requesting that ‘’ I should write and put it on my letter head implicating Peter Nwaoboshi, Chairman , Senate Committee on NNDC, of collecting contracts from the Intervention agency. ‘’ I refused to do it because as a Lawyer whoever alleges must have a proof’’, she has said. She disclosed that the minister took offence for her action, accusing her of being ’’ungrateful’’.
The crisis of Confidence between the duo was said to have started when she refused to sign the covering letter which she said was basically to avoid giving the impression to the President that all the information contained in the petition alleging that Senator Nwaoboshi was collecting contracts from NDDC was true. Instead of signing the covering letter , she was said to have sent a letter to the Committee stating that Cairo Ojuogboh, Executive Director who should know about projects has left NDDC.
But a school of thought said the frosty relationship between the duo started when the minister took the the decision to go ahead with the forensic audit on the activities of the Commission when he assumed office. The forensic audit which was okayed by the Katsina state born Nigerian President was said to have exposed the gross mismanagement of funds in the intervention agency which may have led to the removal of Nuneh.
In anger, she had accused Akpabio of collecting 30 contracts for the distilling and water Hyacinth. She had said that the contracts were awarded when the former oil –rich Akwa Ibom state governor and Festus Keyamo, a Lawyer and minister of State , ministry of Niger Delta, had their first meeting with the Management at the Commission in Port Harcourt.
Apparently to avoid being roped into the fraud, she had said that Linus, the then Executive Director, Finance, had refused to sign the Contract documents because it did not follow the due process. According to her the budget approved for the distilling and water Hyacinth contracts was between N3 billion and N5 billion.
She may have shocked Nigerians when she said the minister also asked her to implicate the Chairman of House Committee on NDDC who had gone to Ondo, his home state for a meeting to plot against him. She noted that before her assumption of office, the Commission had over stretched its financial limit with about N50 billion for distilling and water Hyacinth Contracts alone.
The financial situationof the Commission was so bad that the National Assembly was said to have sent a strongly worded letter to it, advising the Intervention agency never to stop any further payment on distilling and water Hyacinth contracts. Nunieh major worry in the Commission was that Akapbabio never signs any document but would push you to commit fraud.
She cited a Memo which the minister had asked her to raise in order to award an emergency contract for flood victims. She claimed that the minister had also directed her to include projects from the Refuge Commission in the list of the projects to be executed by the agency in the 201 9 budget. She had said that the minister had wanted her to swear an oath of secrecy when she turned down.
She has her reason for doing so. ‘’How do I put some of the projects of the Refuge Commission on the NDDC budget when we have many unexecuted projects in the region’’, she had querried. She noted that the relationship between Akabio and her office was getting so bad that they had a reconciliation meeting in the office of Sariki Abba, at the Presidential Villa but that was how far they could go. Abba is the Special Assistant to the President on Domestics Affairs.
While appearing at the Senate probe ad-hoc Committee, the Rivers state born former NDDC Managing Director had made other damning allegations against the minister. One of the allegations was the mismanagement of the agency N40 billion fund.
Critics see the dirty fight between Nunieh, a former political Appointtee and Managing Director of NNDC and Akpabio , as a show of shame. Akpabio who will not want his hard earned name to be rubbished by any political Appointee was said to have told the Senate Investigative Committee on NNDC, that he never requested and executed the Commission’s Contracts to the tune of N500 million as alleged. Recall thatNwaoboshi, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC, had accused the minister of securing the distilling and water Hyacinth Contracts without executing them. The minister who will not take it had rubbished the claim by the Senate Investigative Committee on the NDDC, that the Commission mismanaged N40 billion between 2019 and 2020.
The situation in NNDC , has become very worrisome in the recent time that Itse Sagay, a Professor and Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, has asked the President to remove all the Board members of the Commission and inject fresh hands.
Itsay, who could not hide his feelings had said that ’’ the allegations of Corruption in the agency is mind boggling and wondered why the forensic auditing of the Commission cannot be done despite having a regular board manning the affairs of the Commission. The Professor said he has been vindicated in his Opposition to two nominees who were appointed to the Commission board by the President.
Itsay, who could not hide his feelings had said that ’’ the allegations of Corruption in the agency is mind boggling and wondered why the forensic auditing of the Commission cannot be done despite having a regular board manning the affairs of the Commission. The Professor said he has been vindicated in his Opposition to two nominees who were appointed to the Commission board by the President.
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