5th may 2020, the Senate set up a 7 man Ad-hoc committee (IMC) to probe the NDDC allocation of monies to the ministry (40 billion naira). – they termed it “financial recklessness”, within the periods of October 29th, 2010 to May 31st, 2020.
The NDDC had made a total expenditure of N81.495 billion between the former Managing Director, Joy Nunieh and the current Professor Pondei. These expenditures were said to have occurred between February 19th, 2020, and May 31, 2020.
Mrs. Gbene Joy Nunieh was said to have spent N22.5 billion of the 81.5 billion between October 2019 to February 18, 2020. And Professor Daniel Pondei, spent N51.1 billion between February 19, 2020 and May 31st, 2020. This happened when each was the Managing Director of the Ministry.
Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi – the Chairman of the Senate Ad hoc Committee said that based on the records they had; the NDDC said it spent N81.5 billion; the AGF submitted N82 billion and the CBN submitted N92.2 billion between October 2019 and May 2020. He gave the breakdown of the expenses as –
N10 million – given to a single staff. N7 million – to 2 staff (N14 million). N3 million – given to each of 148 staffers. N1.5 million – given to each of 157 other categories of staff. N1 million – given to each of another category of 497 staff. N600,000.00 – given to 464 of the last categories of staff. N475 million – given for the purchase face mask and hand sanitizers to the police high command for men and officers in nine states captured in the Niger Delta Region. N1.3 billion – for community relations. N122 million – for condolences. N83.8 million – for consultancy. 3.14 billion – for COVID-19 intervention. N484 million – for Duty Tour Allowance (DTA).N790.9 million – for Imprest. N1.95 billion – for Lassa feversupport. N906 million – for legal fees. N61 million – forlogistics. N61 million – maintenance and N2.6 billion – formedicals.
The strangest part of the whole thing was the amount spent on Covid-19 relief for themselves while the millions of Nigerians prayed for help. Mr. Godwin Etakibuebu known as the Guru saidon Monday, in a Lagos based radio station “the NDDC, underAkpabio, started dealing with the covid-19 pandemic in Nigeria in October (2019) when the pandemic wasn’t yet recorded in the country (COVID-19 became an issue in Wuhan, China in November 2019, it reached Nigeria in February 2020). Implying that Nigeria was dealing with COVID-19 before it manifested inChina”.
We hope the committee gets to the root of the matter, retrieve what belongs the Niger-Delta people and ensure its proper deployment. They deserve the
isiguzoazubuike 