SAN FRANCISCO, May 06, (THEWILL) – The Senate has set up an Adhoc Committee to probe the alleged financial recklessness by the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The committee of the Senate chaired by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Ekiti North) is to, among others, unravel the alleged spending of N40 billion by the IMC in three months without due process.
Other members of the Committee are: Senators Jika Dauda Haliru (Bauchi Central), Mohammed Tanko Almakura (Nasarawa South), Abdulfatai Buhari (Oyo North), Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North) , Ibrahim Hadeija (Jigawa North-East ) and Degi – Eremienyo Biobarakuma Wangaha (APC Bayelsa East).
The resolutions of the Upper Chamber followed a motion titled: “Urgent need to investigate alleged financial recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)” sponsored by Senator George Sekibo (Rivers East).
Sekibo, in his lead debate, noted the Senate is worried that the accelerated development envisaged by the NDDC’s Act has not actually impacted on the region, 20 years after its establishment.
He lamented that the operators of the commission’s policies and programmes have not only lost focus but completely abandoned the initial desire of the people of the area.
Sekibo said: “There have been a loud accusation of misuse of funds by previous management of the commission which portrayed the commission as a financial conduit pipe especially when the aspiration of the founding fathers have been forsaken.
“The visible recklessness may have prompted the President to set up an Interim Management Committee while ordering a forensic audit of the commission so as to reposition it for its intended mandate.
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“While the President’s action of setting up an IMC and the forensic audit may have been conceived to forestall the financial recklessness of the commission and reposition it for fast-tracking of the development of the region, the IMC has been more bedeviled with the same financial misuse, misapplication, misappropriation or outright fraud in the management of the funds of the commission.
“Alarmed that the IMC has inundated itself with undue gross misconducts in fraudulent contracts award without due recourse to due process and flagrant disobedience to the provisions of the Sections 19, 25, 41 and 42 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007.
“Within the last three months, the Commission has spent over N40 billion of the commission’s fund without recourse to established processes of funds disbursement which has opened up further suspicion among stakeholders of the Niger Delta Region.
“The IMC is also alleged to be arbitrarily using executive power for wrongful sacking of management staff of the commission without recourse to established civil service rules and practices with the aim of concealing the fraudulent financial recklessness they have committed.
“Consequently, the IMC has lost credibility and is been seen as a financial conduit pipe based on opinions of stakeholders in the region, which therefore urgently calls for an intervention by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to install confidence in the people for whom the commission was primarily established.
“In particular, Section 88 of the Constitution (as amended), has conferred on the National Assembly and in this case the Senate, to ascertain whether the sum of N40billion so appropriated and in the coffers of the commission, has been properly applied judiciously and appropriately to programmes they are meant for.”
Though during the general debate on the motion, Senators Bala Ibn Na”Allah (Kebbi South) and Ajibola Basiru (Osun Central) through different constitutional point of orders, tried to stop it from sailing through but the motion was approved when it was put to voice vote by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.
