President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, has said the Senate will not be distracted by the myriads of accusations and counter-accusations trailing its investigation of alleged misappropriation in Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the Interim Management Committee (IMC).
The president of the Senate described the move as an enterprise in futility, especially as it was aimed at its probe focused on alleged N40billion misappropriation in the first three months by the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Lawan said this in response to the request for an extension by six weeks by the Senate ad-hoc committee chaired by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, following the delay from invited parties owing to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Senator Adetunbi, who is representing Ekiti North, told the Senate that the response to the committee was rather slow for obvious reasons and sought for more time suggesting six weeks to the upper legislative chamber.
In his ruling on the committee chairman’s request, the president of the Senate said six weeks was too long and reduced it to four weeks.
According to Lawan: “We wish the committee a very successful exercise and urged it to remain focused as far as the planned investigation on finances of NDDC under the Interim Management Committee (IMC), is concerned.
“The move by the Senate in this direction has generated a lot of controversies driven by vested interests.
“So many side attractions, detractions and disruptions pro or against the planned investigation are being carried out by people or groups of people.
“Part of the distractions are series of write-ups in the media by the vested groups almost on daily basis but unfortunately, all these cannot stop the Senate from forging ahead with an assignment backed by resolution and firmly within the ambit of its constitutional responsibilities.
“So, in their own interest, the earlier they stop the distractions the better because our committee will forge ahead with the assignment.”
It will be recalled that in the wake of the probe by the National Assembly, the exercised was perceived as a witch-hunt by the Acting Managing Director of NDDC, Kemebradikumo Pondei.
He said it was aimed at frustrating the ongoing forensic auditing being carried out there by the Presidency on the finances of the commission.
Lawmakers saw such allegation as an attack on their individual integrity and the Senate as an institution.
The allegations and counter-allegations heightened by the comment of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP Delta North).
Both had in the past weeks, attacked each other through proxies.
While Nwaoboshi through documents given to journalists alleged that Akpabio collected contracts worth N500 million from NDDC in 2017 without executing them despite receiving full payment, Akpabio on the other hand, fired back through the IMC by alleging that Nwaoboshi collected N3.6 billion worth of contracts from the commission in 2016 without execution.
President Muhammadu Bihari had on October 17 through a tweet announced that “I have ordered a forensic audit of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). With the amount of money the Federal Government has allocated to the NDDC, we’d like to see the results on the ground; those that are responsible for that have to explain certain issues.”
The forensic probe followed several allegations of financial recklessness by members of the Board of the Commission. Some of which emanated from queries to the Board by the Office of the Auditor General of the federation over which the commission board members have appeared before the Senate.
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