In a document seen by SaharaReporters, the money was paid on May 23, 2020 as to a company named Clear Point Communication Limited with Zenith Bank account number: 1012613187.
The Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission led by Prof Keme Podei after approval from the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, paid N641m for media support to cover its forensic audit exercise.
In a document seen by SaharaReporters, the money was paid on May 23, 2020 as to a company named Clear Point Communication Limited with Zenith Bank account number: 1012613187.
In another document, N39.4m was paid to the same account as consultancy on rebuttal of media attacks against Akpabio and members of the NDDC IMC.
“The National Assembly must end this criminal operation of the illegal IMC of the NDDC. There is nothing like IMC in the NDDC act 2000. The National Assembly must rise up and defend the constitution of Nigeria,” and official of the agency said.
Chairman of the Senate panel on NDDC, Peter Nwaoboshi, had on Wednesday accused the minister of alleged misappropriation of funds of the commission over the years.
Making available some documents to journalists on the alleged involvement of Akpabio in the financial scam, Nwaoboshi said that in 2017 alone, the Niger Delta Affairs Minister collected contracts worth N500m from the NDDC without execution and failed to refund the money.
The NDDC and Akpabio have both been in the news lately with allegations of looting of public funds involving both parties making the rounds.
Civil society groups and senior legal practitioners across the country have called for a thorough probe of the financial misappropriation going on at the NDDC.