See how N5billion covid-19 personal protective equipment contract fraud discovered in NDDC

TRACKING______In a letter dated April 6, 2019 with a Ref number NDDC/MD/HPU/20/4/EHSS/05 seen by SaharaReporters, it was uncovered how the commission endorsed N5,474,647,125.00 for obtainment of Personal Protective Equipment for wellbeing laborers and arrangement of network based sensitisation crusade against the spread of COVID-19 to an organization named Signora Concept Services Limited.

The Niger Delta Development Commission is as of now smelling of a multi-billion naira misrepresentation including the board and top administration individuals from the office over the acquisition of Personal Protective Equipment and sanitizers to handle Coronavirus in the nine states making up the area.

In a letter dated April 6, 2019 with a Ref number NDDC/MD/HPU/20/4/EHSS/05 seen by SaharaReporters, it was uncovered how the commission endorsed N5,474,647,125.00 for acquirement of Personal Protective Equipment for wellbeing laborers and arrangement of network based sensitisation battle against the spread of COVID-19 to an organization named Signora Concept Services Limited.

The letter peruses, “This is to tell you that dependent on your delicate for crisis acquirement of particular clinical Personal Protective Equipment for wellbeing laborers and arrangement of network based refinement crusade against the spread of COVID-19 and other transmittable ailments in the nine condition of the Niger Delta district, the agreement has been granted to you at the absolute expense of N5,474,647,125.00 just comprehensive of 7.5 VAT as rectified and altered as per the guidance to givers by the Niger Delta Development Commission.”

The letter was marked by Alex Ndudi Enebeli, Head of Procurement Unit for the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC.

Despite the fact that the organization was given 15 days to convey all things expressed in the letter, discoveries by SaharaReporters indicated that Signora Concept Services Limited was at this point to convey any gear to a solitary state in the Niger Delta area 18 days after the contracted was granted and installment made.

“Aside from N70m gift made by the NDDC about a month back, we are yet to get any single wellbeing gear from the commission.

“In spite of the fact that we were guaranteed ventilators, we got a letter later from them that it won’t be conceivable once more.

“I’m shocked hearing now from you that over N5bn was planned for PPEs to be circulated to Niger Delta expresses,” a team individual from one of the Niger Delta states told SaharaReporters on Friday.

Checks by SaharaReporters additionally uncovered that the NDDC had in January 2020 discharged the aggregate of N4,096,798,332.50 for the stock of Lassa Fever gear that were never conveyed.

Incensed by the degree of extortion going on in the office, a Niger Delta socio-political association, the Ijaw Intellectual Advocates, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio.

National Coordinator of the gathering, Salaco Yerinmene, said the new agreement affirmed by the NDDC between time the board council was done to cheat the individuals of the district under the pretense of buying COVID-19 PPEs and sanitizers that will never be conveyed to any network under the nine states making up the oil-rich locale.

He stated, “We have plainly understood that the IMC Akpabio established and put under his watch was to endanger the commission and constantly plunder the treasury of the Niger Delta individuals which must be opposed by any and all conceivable means.

“While we leave the perusing open to figure with respect to the rationale behind this agreement, we will get a kick out of the chance to approach a few inquiries asking for answers.

“For what reason ought to Akpabio and IMC offer need to ventures that are not disturbing the Niger Delta individuals?

“What number of networks in the Niger Delta locale were sharpened through this medium over the spread of Coronavirus since the episode of the malady?

“On the off chance that the certifiable to address 2, at that point where did the cash go into?

“Why not utilize the cash to develop significant streets over the seaside networks or utilize the reserve to give consumable water to the different networks?

“Mr Akpabio should realize that as youthful savvy people, we know about the game he is playing in plundering the federation of the individuals and he ought to likewise know that his days are numbered.

“It is to Akpabio’s greatest advantage to leave and summit himself to the EFCC, else we will have no other alternative than to battle to the last mentioned.

“We are again repeating our stand that Akpabio should and ought to be suspended and be examined by the EFCC and the scientific review ought to initiate quickly, in any case the unrefined petroleum from all Ijaw regions will never be utilized to subsidize the current debasement going on at the NDDC.”

It isn’t the first run through misrepresentation of this extent would be revealed in the NDDC, it is in certainty among a considerable rundown of comparative cases.

In January this year, the interval the executives advisory group of the commission reported the revelation of false agreements worth N1rn.

As indicated by the board of trustees, at any rate 1,921 ‘crisis agreements’ were endorse by the previous administration of the office in spite of its yearly spending plan being just around N400bn.

An unmistakable dissident in the area, who asked not to be named, told SaharaReporters on Friday that the NDDC had consistently been utilized as channel by incredible people in government to siphon enormous open assets and deny the individuals of formative activities that could have transformed themselves to improve things.

He stated, “The NDDC has been even more a revile for the individuals of Niger Delta than a gift. All the large government officials do is to utilize the office to drain individuals of the district by taking assets implied for advancement of the locale and consequently preclude them from claiming the essential foundation and courtesies that could have raised the nature of their lives. It is a cesspool of debasement.”

Up until this point, the Niger Delta area has 42 detailed instances of Coronavirus spread across Delta (six), Akwa Ibom (11), Edo (17), Ondo (three), Rivers (three), and Abia (two).