30 September 2015, Lagos – The Coalition of Civil Society Groups has alleged that the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) awarded outrageous inflated contracts for the past five years or more. It has therefore called on the anti-graft agencies to thoroughly and urgently beam their search light on the activities of the commission and all contracts awarded.
President of the group, Comrade Etuk Bassey disclosed at a press briefing in Abuja that the group resolved to bring the corruption cases to the notice of the public as according to him, some National Assembly members benefitted from the illicit deals.
According to him, “As we all know, the country is in a thorough renaissance in the light and spirit of the anti-corruption wind that is blowing across the length and breadth of Nigeria. It is in the same spirit of the anti-corruption campaign that we are bent on unraveling the corruption misery in NDDC in collaboration with some criminally minded Legislators in the National Assembly.”
Bassey stated: “Our findings reveal that the commission is riddled with different facts of corrupt practices ranging from outrageous inflated contracts, contracts splitting, non expectation of contracts for which payments have either been fully paid orsubstantial percentage of the contracts sumsreleased.”
He recalled that the Auditor General of the Federation had opened the surface of the huge corrupt practices going on in NDDC through the 2013 Audit Report; alleging that, “NDDC in connivance with some highly placed legislators are using their offices in the National Assembly to indulged in criminal activities via contracts scam.
Continuing, Bassey said; “the over ten years Legislators in the National Assembly have turned themselves into legislative contractors because of the volume of contracts giving to them by NDDC allocated with unregistered companies to execute the Jobs.
“In some cases, the contracts awarded to them are not fully executed because they believe that they are untouchable in the face of law. Please note that sixty- seven contracts were giving to the legislators in the space of two years,” it noted. Responding, the Public Affairs Manager of NDDC, Mr. Abosede Ibitoye described the allegations as lies, saying that the commission has put in place some checks and balances to avoid a situation in which there would be up executed contracts for which money has been paid.
- This Day
