Says outcome of forensic audit will shock Nigerians
By Chris Ochayi
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, weekend said the previous administration at the Niger Delta Development, NDDC, awarded N6 billion contracts for fingerlings without any designated fish ponds to deliver the services.
Senator Akpabio, who made the disclosure in Abuja, while playing host to a delegation of members of Petrol Station Owners Association, PESOA, Rivers State chapter, said this explained the unprecedented rots that characterized the previous management of the commission.
Akpabio, who concluded that there was no going back on the current forensic audit of activities of the commission, however, added that the outcome of the exercise would shock Nigerians to their bone marrow.
The immediate past Governor of Akwa Ibom State, while reiterating the determination to reposition the commission for effective mandate delivery vowed to reverse all the clogs that worked against the progress of the commission in the past.
He insisted that if you are from Niger Delta region, you must be forced to ask certain questions, adding, “I was in this office when a young man walked in and asked me, Sir, what do I do?
“I was given a contract to supply fingerlings for N6 billion and I have N3 billion still in my account. I asked by whom, he said NDDC, I said when? And he said a few years ago but with this probe coming I don’t know what to do.
“My health is not good and I don’t want stress. Sir, can I return N3 billion out of the N6 billion? I said didn’t you supply, he said they didn’t give him where to supply to.
“Fingerlings is something that you supply to fish ponds, Am I right? Now N6 billion worth of fingerlings of fish ponds in Niger Delta and yet they didn’t have the fish pond but they wrote there are across 27 senatorial district.
“I think they like giving out contracts without doing the job. I keep telling people I am not just waking up. As a governor, I know there was something wrong with NDDC but I couldn’t pinpoint it, I could see the symptoms.
“So when I became a Minister of Niger Delta that’s when I found that the symptoms of failure that I used to see here all about corruption. It was like an ATM for people to make money to go and contest elections.
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