The former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Joi Nunieh, on Friday, accused the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, of hijacking the forensic audit of the NDDC, ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari, .
Speaking when she appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC over allegations of illegal expenditure and mismanagement by the Commission, Nunieh at the investigative hearing, alleged that the Minister breached various laws in a bid to hijack the forensic audit.
On Thursday, the investigation of the NDDC took a dramatic turn when the Police, said to have been sent from Abuja, invaded Nunieh’s residence in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who intervened and prevented the police from taking Nunieh away, had asked the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to probe the invasion of the home of the former NDDC boss.
It was alleged that the invasion, during which the policemen were seen in a viral video breaking the woman’s rear door to gain entry forcibly, was to prevent Nunieh from moving from Port Harcourt to Abuja to testify before the panel.
On the same day, NDDC’s Interim Management Committee members, led by the acting Managing Director, Prof Kemebradikumo Pondei, appeared before the House committee but later walked out of the sitting after insisting that the panel chairman, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, must step down. The House committee then issued a warrant for the arrest of the IMC members.
But on Friday, Nunieh, who attended the hearing and made her presentation via online meeting platform, Zoom, apologised for not showing up at the hearing on Thursday, “because what would have happened would have been that nobody would have known who took me away and only God knows what would have happened.”
She added, “This has been the modus operandi for enemies of the minister and ex-governor of Akwa Ibom State. You saw what happened yesterday, it was all about documents.”
When the panel chairman asked about the forensic audit ordered by Buhari, for which the IMC was constituted, Nunieh said, “What I met was not exactly what is going on. Akpabio insisted that he would supervise the forensic audit. I reminded him and showed him the letter that the President had written, that there is no way we could spend the money that was in our budget.
“In his memo to the President, he requested that the money for the funding of the forensic audit be got from the Service Wide Vote. Mr President, in his wisdom, refused that request and in writing said it should be from NDDC’s appropriation, making NDDC the producing entity.”
Nunieh also alleged that auditors had not been appointed to conduct the audit as being claimed by Akpabio.
She said: “When I was there, I was the one who prepared all the documents for the forensic audit and sent in the applications. The first thing was for us to go through the procurement of the lead consultant. Many people have clearly misunderstood the procurement of the lead consultant. Because I did not want any illegality and the forensic audit to be discredited, I ensured – with the help of big consultants – we came up with the terms of reference for these auditors.
“The lead consultant that everyone is talking about is not the forensic auditor. He does not have a lot. The role of the lead consultant is to gather. When all the forensic auditors have got all the data and reports from the field, they will put them together and give to the lead consultant who will put them together in a report. That is just his role. He is not the one to carry out any forensic audit.
“This (Messrs Olumuyiwa) Basiru and Co, I do not know if they have ever carried out a forensic audit. So, I will be asking to tell them to give you evidence that they have ever carried out a forensic audit before, in accordance with the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, which requires that for any consultant or contractor, must show evidence that for the past three years or thereabouts, they have carried out that.”
The ex-NDDC boss challenged the minister and IMC to provide a proof that the fund being spent on auditors was appropriated by the National Assembly. According to her, the commission had obtained Certificate of No Objection from the Bureau of Public Procurement even when the 2020 budget of the NDDC had not been passed.
She added, “It is a criminal offence to procure any consultant without the appropriation made by the National Assembly because it will be an anticipatory budgeting. In this case, has the National Assembly appropriated funds?”
She accused Akpabio of misleading the Federal Executive Council to approve the procurement of auditors even when the audit was to be funded with the 2020 budget of the NDDC.
Nunieh also stated that she spent a total of N8bn during her stay as acting MD between October 2019 and February 2020.
The NDDC is, however, said to have spent not less than N81.5bn in 2020 alone.
Nunieh alleged that Akpabio gave her a list of NDDC officials to be redeployed or sacked, including the only northerner in the management.
She recalled that October 28, 2019, on her way to the inauguration of the 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.
Nunieh alleged that Akpabio asked her to appoint 10 of her aides, as he did with Bernard Okumagba as MD of NDDC.
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 stated, “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) Nwaboshi 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 Nwaboshi is the case of the 98 files which I was supposed to write about.”
Speaking on the issue of employment, she stated that the minister had collected curricula vitae from “godfathers” and she made it known that the issue of employment was already an issue before she came as the Federal Character Commission that used to give NDDC the approval for employment stopped it because of the scandal.
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.”
