Senator Godswill Akpabio, Minister, Niger Delta Affairs.
Uchendu Mark – Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has denied awarding contract worth N500,000,000 to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
This denial came following an allegation raised by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, that the said contract was awarded to Akpabio, regretting that same was not executed.
But in a statement, the spokesman of the NDDC, Charles Odili, noted that the allegation was misleading, adding that from the findings of the commission that it is Nwaoboshi that has questions to answer.
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Odili said, “the commission wishes to state that it has searched through its records and there is no evidence of any contract awarded to Senator Akpabio or any company associated with him by the NDDC.
“From our findings, the person who has questions to answer to the Niger Delta People is Senator Nwaoboshi. Our records show that Senator Nwaoboshi used 11 front companies (owned or traceable to him) to secure a contract of N3.6 billion in September 2016, in what is perhaps the biggest single case of looting of the Commission’s resources.”
Odili have the names of the said firms as, Noan Integrated Services, De Towers Constructions & Allied Services Ltd, Franstine Nigeria Enterprises, Edrihide Company, Isumabe U.K. Global, Benchmark Construction & Allied Services Ltd, Millstone Allied Builders Ltd. and others.
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The inventory records show that these items were supplied and received on Senator Nwaoboshi’s business premises and warehouse. Meanwhile, the contracts were awarded to him.
However, some of the items supplied to Nwaoboshi’s warehouse through his cronies, were later resold to the Delta state government, while the others were sold to other states through contracts awarded to him.
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All supply agreements were signed by one and the same person being Mr. Agbamuche Nelson, traceable to Senator Nwaoboshi.
This is in flagrant contravention of section 58(4) (a) and (d) of the Public Procurement Act. No wonder Senator Nwaoboshi and his cohorts are jittery about the ongoing forensic audit exercise in the NDDC and are doing everything possible to derail it.
