The former acting managing diirector of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Joy Nunieh on Friday accused the chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs Senator Peter Nwaoboshi of receiving N1 billion monthly from NDDC by proxy.
Ms Nunieh made the allegation during an appearance via Zoom before the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC investigating allegations of illegal expenditure and mismanagement by the commission.
Nunieh also accused the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Godswill Akpabio of hijacking the forensic audit of the NDDC ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
She recalled that on October 28, 2019, on her way to the inauguration of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) at the boardroom of the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta, the minister threatened to see to her exit from office if she failed to do his bidding.
She also stated that two days after the inauguration, at the Le Meridien Hotel, at Akpabio’s first meeting with the IMC, the minister told her he wanted her to send some workers away.
She said: “He said the first thing I would do is to write a letter to him – he gave me the draft, that I should put it on my letterhead. In that letter, I was supposed to write about most of the companies; Senator (Peter) Nwaoboshi owned the 98 companies.
“I never ever told the world that Senator Nwaboshi was the senator that was collecting the N1bn. The issue of the N1bn was different. I said ‘how can an individual be collecting N1bn every month?’ The case of Senator Nwaoboshi is the case of the 98 files which I was supposed to write about.”
Nunieh also alleged that auditors had not been appointed to conduct the audit as being claimed by Akpabio.
She added, “I want to tell the world that I never did any employment. I never gave out a single contract from NDDC.
“I am not corrupt. No contractor can sit anywhere and say they gave me N10. And I can say before the world that I’m the most unpopular MD ever that came to NDDC. The money of the people of Niger Delta is blood money, I refused to touch it. Even when my friends were contractors, even when they claimed that they were owed monies, my instruction was that everybody should finish their jobs. Everybody saw contractors going back to site when I was the MD.
“I was privileged to see all the videos. For one job, five people would send me videos of completion – the same job, the same video – and I would just laugh.”
