NDDC petitions police over alleged N1.62bn unexecuted contracts

By SANNI ONOGU, Abuja

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has petitioned the Inspector General of Police over alleged N1, 625,467,200 contracts said to have been paid for by the agency but unexecuted by contractors.

The contracts for the supply of 4,800 benches and desks each was said to have been awarded to seven companies at the cost of N232, 209,600 each.

The acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the NDDC, Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, disclosed this in a letter to the IGP dated July 29, 2020.

Pondei, in the letter titled: “Re: Forwarding of documents in respect of on-going investigation” for the attention of Barr. Akeem Lawal (DOPs – Department of Operations) and sighted by The Nation in Abuja, said: “Please refer to the on-going investigation on the Niger Delta Development Commission.

“The commission has already forwarded some documents to you in assisting with your investigations.

“In addition to the documents given to your team, I hereby forward the attached documents to you.

“In or about 2017, the commission awarded contracts to certain companies for the production of desks and chairs for primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta Region. The list of the companies is attached.

“The contracts were awarded in furtherance of the commission’s education sector mandate as learning condition in the Niger Delta region.

“Instead of supplying the chairs and desks to the commission’s warehouse in Port Harcourt or to any of the NDDC offices in the nine Niger Delta states, the contractors supplied them to a warehouse described as ‘Akuede Akwis, Benin Expressway, Okpanam before Wichetech.’

“The warehouse is located in Delta State and has no relationship with the commission. (The Nation)

“Waybills evidencing delivery of the desks and chairs at the said warehouse are hereby attached.

“Despite having fully paid for the contracts, the contractors and the owner of the warehouse have refused to release the chairs and desks to the commission.

“The resultant effect is that the commission and the Niger Delta region have been deprived of the use of the desks and chairs and neither have the contractors refunded the monies paid on the items to the commission as money had and received.

“It is on the strength of the foregoing that the NDDC invites you to take a look at the fact culminating in this petition.”

Chairman of the Senate committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, last week denied any link with a N2.55 billion unexecuted NDDC contracts which payment the commission claimed it made to his companies.

The Senator was among the lawmakers named by Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, as one of the beneficiaries of unexecuted contracts awarded by the NDDC.

The NDDC’s letter to Nwaoboshi, which was dated July 5th, 2020 and signed by the commission’s director of Legal Services, Peter Claver Okoro, had asked the N2,552,305,600 paid to contractors for the production of plastic desks and chairs for the primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta region in 2017 under its 2016 budget be refunded.

But Nwaoboshi dared the agency to go to court over its demand that he should refund N2.5 billion being alleged payment for unexecuted projects.

Nwaoboshi, in a statement by his media aide, Awele Onokwai, in Abuja, had said that “if the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC feels it truly has a genuine case against him as contained in the letter, it should go to the law court or make use of every legal procedure available it.” (The Nation)