19 August 2015, Abuja – The Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr. Henry Ogiri, has accused the Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura, of playing to the gallery by releasing a report on the commission to the National Assembly when the NDDC has not responded to the queries sent to it on a report, which allegedly declared 183.7bn missing in the commission.
Ogiri said the AGF would get a comprehensive response from the commission in a few weeks and might even regret releasing the report.
He spoke while responding to questions on AIT’s Focus Nigeria Programme, monitored by our correspondent on Wednesday in Abuja.
He pointed out that it could only be appropriate for the commission to respond to the full report, which contained 307 pages, and not just a page that was forwarded to the office of the Managing Director of the commission.
The finance director added that the commission was addressing the queries raised in the report received three months ago, many of which he insisted, were unfounded.
He said that while he could not justify the issues raised by the Auditor General, there were indications of attempt to tarnish the image of the NDDC management team, led by the Managing Director, Mr. Dan Abia, and paint the body as corrupt.
Ogiri stated, “You can’t respond to a query based on just a single sheet document. They said they have sent it to the office of the MD; the MD now wrote back to ask for the full document because what we got was just a letter, saying we have sent you the report.
“Send the entire documents let’s see. They now forwarded the report. This was like three months ago. I believe you are with the number, I told you that it is a 307-page document, with numerous queries and we are doing justice to it.
“I have already communicated to them to give us a few more weeks and they will get a complete response to their queries. And at the end of the day, he will even regret that he has even sent this out to the public.
“I am not holding brief; I cannot justify all the issues he has raised but there are clean cases of misrepresentation, misinformation, ill intention to divert the minds of the public and portray the leadership of Dan Abia as a corrupt team.
“This is very sad for this country. We can’t fight corruption, we can’t even support the President’s anti-corruption drive with this. It is really unfortunate.”
Ogiri said the AGF’s report covered 2008 to 2012, which was before the inauguration of the current executive.
Describing the action of the AGF as inproper, the director accused the Ukura of playing to the gallery by providing the report to the National Assembly and granting media interviews.
