Group Petitions National Assembly Over Alleged N80bn Fraud In NDDC

Advocacy group, Act for Positive Transformation Initiative, has written a petition to the leadership of the National Assembly for expeditious action on the planned probe exercise of the Niger Delta Development Commission.

The group alleged that verifiable available records at its disposal indicated that money squandered by the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC between January and May this year was N80bn.

The petition signed by the group’s Head, Directorate of Research, Strategy and Programmes, Kolawole Johnson, urged the National Assembly to stop NDDC under its present leadership from further financial transactions aside from monthly salary payments to workers.

The petition reads in part, "That the National Assembly directs the commission to stop all forms of procurements.

"That the National Assembly directs the commission and relevant agencies to stop all forms of payments from the commission’s account.

"That a proper account must be given for the over N80bn squandered by the commission between January and May, 2020.

"That the commission should be allowed to pay salaries only.

"That the National Assembly directs the commission to stop payments of all forms of allowances as this has been grossly abused."

Kolawole alleged further that the IMC members of the NDDC pay themselves monthly allowances running into hundreds of millions, which are also extended to some staff of the commission.

He disclosed that such special payments made through alleged fraudulent imprest were paid to Mr Charles Odili, a director in the commission, on the 30th of April, 2020 at about 12:56pm in the sum of N10m in his UBA account.

The same Odili was said to have raised memos for over N1.2bn for imaginary media work within four weeks.

The petition added, "The MD of the commission, Prof Pondei routes one of his illegal monthly allowances N51.6m as imprest on Personal Security and Project Monitoring through the bank account of a staffer named Oweife Justina with employee ID no 94 while Dr Cairo Ojugboh, who collects N18m for same purpose, uses Eno Ukpe’s bank account, a staffer with employee ID no 509, for his payments.

"They also receive N10m monthly for hosting visitors. These payments are not connected to the money already provided in the budget for project monitoring, which has been overdrawn by over N180m in the last few months.

"Among numerous agitations, our office is, in recent times, inundated with cries from students abroad under the commission’s scholarship who are currently stranded in different countries.

"While these students are facing untold hardship, the present Interim Management Committee members are busy paying themselves money meant for the hapless students.

"Prof Pondei in particular, paid himself and received foreign scholarship payments into his private UBA account no 1002290165 on the 17th of April at about 16:50gmt.

"Same for Dr Cairo Ojugboh who also received millions into his private account no 1002428409 around 16:24GMT being payment for a 2020 post-graduate scholarship for himself. Several staff, especially those who had allegedly conspired with the present management to squander the commission’s fund, also received millions into their private accounts for the same 2020 post-graduate scholarship they never attended even during lockdown.”

The group added that the 2019 budget of the NDDC expired on May 31, 2020 and that the commission was yet to submit the 2019 budget performance to enable the parliament begin legislative work on the 2020 budget submitted to the National Assembly.

The NDDC has been accused by several groups across the country of financial recklessness at the expense of developmental projects in the Niger Delta region, prompting a planned probe by the National Assembly.

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