The drama around the ongoing probe of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) gets messier by the day as the Senate Monday took a swipe at the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio over allegations of contracts scam slammed on some serving and former senators.
And in a sharp reaction, Senators Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP Delta North) and James Manager (PDP Delta South), both of whom were accused, described Akpabio’s allegations as lies from the pit of hell.
Senator Akpabio, had in some media reports, listed names of serving and former federal lawmakers as having collected 60% of contracts awarded by the NDDC in the 2018 fiscal year.
Some of the serving senators alleged to be involved in the contracts scam, are Nwaoboshi, Manager and Senator Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South) etc.
Senate speaks
But the Senate in its reaction to the allegations described them as fallacies of the highest order.
Speaking to journalists on the allegations, Chairman Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Ayo Akinyelure (PDP Ondo Central), said the allegations were unfounded and sheer blackmail.
He said most of the contracts alleged to have been taken by the listed federal lawmakers at different times were constituency projects appropriated for them in the national budget without them collecting a single kobo to execute same as lawmakers.
The lawmaker said: “As a matter of fact, the submission of Senator Akpabio is a cheap blackmail which cannot be tenable anywhere in Nigeria. Senators are representatives of the people in the legislature and we have power of Appropriation. Projects allocated to us are put in the various ministries and agencies of government where they can be fully executed.
“Those of us from the Niger Delta region can lobby for some of the projects to be put in their various constituencies. That does mean that the money for their execution were given to senators. We don’t touch money here but influence projects to be executed in our constituencies. When that is done, the executive arm of government will advertise for contractors to bid for them, and award them, following due process.
“The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs was a senator in the 8th Senate. Did he not facilitate projects worth billions of naira to his own constituency through the NDDC? The answer is yes, he did. If he admits that they paid him the money for the execution of the contracts, then, it is a question of investigating who won the contracts.
“The allegation that members of the National Assembly from the Niger Delta region facilitated projects is a fallacy because being indigenes of the region; they have the right to facilitate projects to their communities in the interest of their constituents.
“If I’m the chairman of the Niger Delta committee in the Senate and projects worth N200billion are to be allocated to the region, I will influence 10 per cent of it to my constituency. The projects are meant for Niger Delta region, therefore there is nothing wrong for the National Assembly members from the region to facilitate some of them to their constituencies.
“However, if these projects were successfully facilitated and a particular senator used his company to take the money away, our committee will go and investigate, where they fall short, they would be nailed by the law. If the projects were never executed and senators used their companies to take the money away, that is fraud.
“Therefore, allegations that some senators have taken money to execute contracts in the NDDC, is a fallacy of the highest order because we have our records, we don’t do that. Our committee will look into the allegations of blackmail against some lawmakers and make our findings public”.
In separate reactions, Senators Nwaoboshi and Manager challenged Akpabio to report them to relevant anti-graft agencies in the country if he was sure of his facts.
In a personally signed statement, Nwaoboshi said the 53 NDDC contracts Akpabio alleged he got in 2018, had no bearing with the truth.
“This unsubstantiated allegation is in line with Mr. Akpabio’s well known agenda to continuously blackmail me so as to keep diverting public attention away from the serious mismanagement of the NDDC by the Interim Management Committee ( IMC ), under his supervision and under the guise of a phantom forensic audit that has no operating time line,” he said.
In a similar reaction, Senator Manager said since June 2015 when he stopped serving as chairman , Senate committee on Niger Delta Affairs, he had no dealings whatsoever with NDDC, let alone IMC, currently running it.
He challenged Akpabio to provide details of the said contracts he got, names of companies used and evidence of payments made.
His statement reads in part: “That My tenure as Chairman of Niger Delta Committee in the Senate effectively ended in 2015. That ever since then I have never visited NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt or any of its branches.
“That NDDC never awarded any contract to any company owned by me. That I do not know of any company owned by me that has ever gone into bidding of government jobs anywhere in the world. (This may come to many as a surprise but this is the gospel truth).
“That those who are alleging to defame me must be aware of the consequences. That in the interest of the gullible innocent public, the authors led by the said Dr Cairo Ojugboh or any other person should provide among other things the following please; detailed description of the said jobs, names of companies, payments already made and to whom?”
