NDDC’s IMC under probe over N40b

A PROBE of alleged “reckless” spending of N40billion by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Interim Management Committee (IMC) was launched by the National Assembly on Tuesday.
The Senate and the House of Representatives set up separate ad-hoc committees to investigate the allegation.
The IMC is supervising a forensic audit of the NDDC as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Senate ad-hoc committee, chaired by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Ekiti North), is to probe the sum allegedly spent within three months without due process.
Other members are Senators Jika Dauda Haliru (Bauchi Central), Mohammed Almakura (Nasarawa South), Abdulfatai Buhari (Oyo North), Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North), Ibrahim Hadeija (Jigawa

North-East ) and Degi-Eremienyo Wangaha (Bayelsa East).


The resolution followed a motion titled: “Urgent need to investigate alleged financial recklessness in the NDDC” sponsored by Senator George Sekibo (Rivers East).

Sekibo, in his lead debate, said it was worrying that what is on the ground in the Niger Delta does not justify the huge funds allocated to the NDDC over the years.

“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 bedevilled with the same financial misuse, misapplication, misappropriation or outright fraud in the management of the funds of the commission,” the Senator said.