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Nigeria Parliament Moves To Recover N67 Billion In Niger Delta Development Commission Contract Scam

September 26, 2019

The directive was issued on Wednesday by the chairman of the
committee, Ossai ‎Nicholas Ossai, at the resumed hearing of the
committee.

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The House of Representatives Committee on abandoned projects awarded
by the Niger Delta Development Commission has directed the commission
to recover over N67 billion and other monies disbursed for contracts.

The directive was issued on Wednesday by the chairman of the
committee, Ossai ‎Nicholas Ossai, at the resumed hearing of the
committee.

He was responding to submissions by the NDDC management team led by
its Acting Managing Director Akwaga Enyia who appeared before the
committee to give details of contracts awarded by the commission.

The committee urged the NDDC to recover N61.4 billion from contractors
who abandoned sites ‎and another N5.8 billion alleged excess payment
to others as discovered in a preliminary report of the investigation
by the committee.

According to the committee chairman, over 600 contractors were
dubiously awarded contracts by the NDDC across the states of
jurisdiction.

An official the ‎NDDC told the lawmakers that 49 of the contracts
awarded across the Niger Delta regions were terminated and 342 others
stalled.

The committee’s chairman said findings revealed that the commission,
apart from engaging in questionable dealings, lacked effective control
mechanism in contract awards and project finance which led to flagrant
abuse of due process.

He directed that all former managing directors of the NNDC be invited
to attend the next hearing slated for today.

According to a document submitted by the NDDC management during the
hearing, the commission’s approved budgets from 2008 to 2018 stood at
N2,832,611,325,966; and the total receipts, N1,848,774,602,103.

A member of the committee, Suleman Abubakar Mahmud Gumi, said what was
discovered was shocking, saying the committee had exposed the level of
corruption in the NDDC.

He said the committee would submit its report to the House and that
anybody found culpable in depriving the Niger Delta people of the
needed development by short-changing them through the NDDC would be
prosecuted by relevant agencies, reports Daily Trust.