Sat. Jan 4th, 2025

NDDC’s Pondei Petitions IGP, Seeks Probe of Contract Awards

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Acting Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Prof Kemebradikumo Pondei, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, asking him to carry out a holistic investigation into the award of contracts that were not executed.

In a petition dated July 29, 2020, Pondei said in 2017, the NDDC awarded contracts to certain companies for the production of desks and chairs for primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta but noted that the contracts were never executed.

This came as Niger Delta Rights Advocates, NDRA, described as diversionary, claims by Pondei that some House of Reps Committee members on NDDC coerced the Interim Management Committee, IMC, of the NDDC into making payments for contracts before the commission’s 2019 budget could be released.

NDRA also called for the arrest and prosecution of the 50-member Contracts Verification Committee, CVC, headed by Dr Cairo Ojugboh, constituted by the IMC to verify all contracts of the NDDC before payment could be made.

In another development, a civil society group, Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy, VATLAD, asked governors of the nine oil-producing states of Niger-Delta to publish details of their incomes and expenditures for forensic auditing, rather than hunt for roles in the NDDC.

On his part, Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South) has written the Managing Director of NDDC, asking him to, as a matter of urgency, make clarification on the purported contracts awarded to his constituency.

Pondei’s petition to the IGP read: “On or about 2017, the commission awarded contracts to certain companies for the production of desks and chairs for primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta. The list of companies is attached. “The contracts were awarded in furtherance of the commission’s education sector mandate to improve learning conditions in the Niger Delta.

“Instead of supplying the chairs and desks to the commission’s warehouse in Port Harcourt or to any of the NDDC offices in the nine Niger Delta states, the contractors supplied them to a warehouse described as Akuede Akwis, Benin Expressway, Okpanam, before Wichtech.

“The warehouse is located in Delta State and has no relationship with the commission. Waybills evidencing delivery of the desks and chairs at the said warehouse are hereby attached. Despite having been fully paid for the contracts, the contractors and the owner of the warehouse have refused to release the chairs and desks to the commission.

“The resultant effect is that the commission and the Niger Delta have been deprived of the use of the desks and chairs and neither have the contractors refunded the monies paid on the items to the commission.

“It is on the strength of the foregoing that the NDDC invites you to take a look at the fact culminating in this petition.”

However, seeking clarification on the contracts awarded for his constituency, Senator Urhoghide said: “I had written to the acting Managing Director of NDDC to make clarification on the six purported projects since the commission is insisting that it stands on its earlier position that contracts were awarded to some senators of which my name was mentioned.

“The NNDC must come up with the names of the companies, the status of the projects, amount committed into the projects, and stage of the projects. This is a prelude to my further action. I want to know if they are in my constituency and status.”

Ayooluwa Joshua

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