The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions issued a fresh summon to the management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) on Thursday.
The management staff are to appear before the Senate panel on February 22 to explain how N6.25 billion was spent by the commission on COVID-19 palliatives in 2020.
This is following a petition before the senate panel claiming that the NDDC, under the sacked Daniel Pondei-led Interim Management Committee, spent the said amount on palliative, which they could not account for.
The petition was signed by the Chairman of the NDDC’s COVID-19 Palliative Distribution Committee, Sobomabo Jackrich, who said no money was spent for such a purpose by the dismissed Interim Management Committee.
Jackrich’s petition says, “As the Chairman of the COVID-19 Palliatives Distribution Committee of the NDDC, I testify that N6.25bn approved by Mr President for palliatives for the entire Niger Delta Region through the NDDC cannot be accounted for and is allegedly embezzled by the then Prof. Daniel Pondei-led IMC.
“My committee was totally sidelined and the IMC hijacked the process because of their secret plots just because I, as the Chairman, demanded for transparency in the entire process.
“The then IMC conspired among themselves and distributed strange substance in the name of palliatives in form of spoilt food items to a few communities in the region. To cover up for the fraud, they tried without success to bribe me with few bags of rice and beans just to induce me to play along with them.”