NDDC N40 Billion Probe: Stop Chasing Shadows, Kpokpogri tells NASS
Chairman of Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum, Comrade Prince Kpokpogri, yesterday told the National Assembly to chase the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC over the payment of N40 billion to certified contractors and focus on the more pressing national concern of the moment, which is Covid-19.
Describing the Senate probe of the payment made to contractors as a caricature and headless task, Kpokpogri said the NDDC IMC was the best thing that has happened to the Commission since inception.
Speaking during a press conference, the Anti Corruption Activist, urged the Niger Delta people to support Senator Godswill Akpabio in his quest to clean up the NDDC and position it to better the lives of the Niger Deltans in line with the spirit of its creation.
Kpokpogri said what the National Assembly was doing by inviting the Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Akpabio for questioning the N40 billion paid to certified contractors was a shot in the dark and legislative busy body.
He said: “Is the National Assembly saying that contractors who were owed over a year ago should not be paid even after the contracts were certified to have been duly executed? Are they aggrieved that some of their youth contractors had been denied opportunities for more fraudulent jobs? Or are they angry that there would be no more free money from contracts that were never executed?”.
He said inviting Akpabio to question him on the money he got the Presidency’s approval to pay contractors was nothing but a distraction, either to cover up for their laxity and inability to add value to the system or a grand plan to harm Akpabio with Covid-19 infection.
While accusing some politicians of wanting to use NDDC as a conduit pipe to stack money for the 2023 election, he averred that the headless probe could be diversionary, accusing some politicians.
The activist further asked that if the petition to probe the hard-working IMC of NDDC was not representing vested interest, then why must spend N40 billion to offset contractual debts become a matter of urgent public importance in an era of Coronavirus pandemic?
Kpokpogri said: “Let me tell the world that the Senate invitation on Akpabio is just an agenda to mount pressure on him to intimidate him, just for disappointing their fraudulent antics. But he should not be perturbed; it’s only but a game.
“The Interim Management Committee is the best thing that has happened so far in NDDC. We have never had it this good in Niger Delta. Is the Senate saying that contractors should not be paid? It is high time this nonsense stopped.
“I call on the Presidency to disregard any blackmail against the person of Senator Akpabio. We have passed a vote of confidence in him. He is doing what the NDDC was created for, which is to better the lives of the Niger Delta people as an Interventionist Agency.
“Finally, I advise the National Assembly to find something good and of national value to do and stop chasing shadows”.
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