President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that anyone involved in the misappropriation of the N6 trillion pumped into the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), would be made to cough it out.
Reacting to the audited report of the commission submitted to the federal government, the president said that N3,375,735,776,794 was sunk into the NDDC through budgetary allocations while another sum N2, 420, 948, 894, 191 was provided for the commission through statutory allocations.
He noted that the commission maintained an unprecedented 362 bank accounts as conduit pipes through which its funds were used to pay contractors for either unexecuted or abandoned projects.
According to the president, in spite of the huge fund provisions, there had been no commensurate infrastructural facilities to justify the good efforts of government toward the people that are supposed to be beneficiaries.
Buhari, who received the forensic audit report carried out on the commission, lamented that over 13,777 projects designed to make life more meaningful for the people of the Niger Delta region awarded by those at the helms of affairs were criminality abandoned after billions of naira had been paid to contractors that would soon be fished out.
The president received the report through the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
Buhari also said that no one indicted for shady deals in the NDDC scam would be spared no matter how highly placed adding “everyone will be made to account for his or her own deed. No one will be spared ”
To demonstrate the federal government’s seriousness to address the alleged monumental fraud, the president ordered that the report be immediately made available to the Federal Ministry of Justice for legal review that will pave the way for prosecution of the indicted people.
The report, which was in four segments, was presented by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
In his overview of the report, the leader of the forensic auditors, Alhaji Kabiru Ahmed, said that a whopping sum of $4 billion is standing against oil companies in the region to be remitted to the people through the NDDC and pleaded that efforts be made to recover the money from the affected companies.
The renowned auditor said that 16 companies engaged to do the auditing recommended that work of the NDDC board be made part time as against the current full time status.
He urged that all the staff who compromised on the award of fraudulent contracts must be made to face the music if NDDC is to be made functional.
Kabiru also called for periodic review of the master plan of the NDDC while contractors who received money without job done be made to cough out funds while payment of mobilisation fee to contractors must be immediately abolished in the interest of accountability and probity in the commission. ##
