NDDC N40 Billion Misappropriation Of Budget, Akpabio Tells Senate Procedures.
Minister Of Affairs Of The Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio told the Senate yesterday that if the Niger Delta Development Committee, NDDC, is to meet the challenges of the Niger Delta region, it has become very important for both the Senate and the House of Representatives to closely monitor the Agency’s budget.
In his speech yesterday in Abuja, when he addressed Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi of the All-Progressive Congress, APC, Ekiti North, led by Akpabio Ad-hoc, who investigated the alleged financial frivolity of the Interim Management Committee, IMC, of the 40. billion NDDC between January and March this year, Akpabio stressed the urgent need for synergy between the National Assembly, the Federal Government and the interventionist agency for a complete overhaul of the NDDC’s budgetary procedures.
Akpabio, who appeared before the commission on the last day of the public inquiry hearing, accused the National Assembly of what he described as an abuse of the Commission’s budgetary procedures, adding that there had been cases where budgeted funds had been drastically and illegally reduced by some members of the National Assembly against the originally approved fund.
However, in the meantime, the immediately preceding director of the NDDC, Dr. Yimebe Nunieh, stated at the investigative hearing that of the total of N81 billion spent by the Commission between 29 October 2019 and 31 May 2020, only N81 billion was spent by the IMC under his direction between 29 October 2019 and 28 February 2020.
However, the acting Executive Director, Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei, threatened to resign if the allegations of corruption against his IMC team proved to be true.
