We’re under pressure by National Assembly to pay N6.4b for jobs not executed — NDDC

TRACKING_____The Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Prof. Kemebradikumo Pondei, has accused the committees of the National Assembly responsible for the oversight of the Commission of working against the forensic audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Acting MD of the NDDC said this at a news conference at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

Pondei said the probe being embarked on by the National Assembly was distracting the Commission from focusing on the forensic audit, which all stakeholders, including Governors of the nine Niger Delta States, agreed with President Buhari as the way forward for the Commission.

He declared: “We suspect that the probe being trumpeted by the National Assembly is not for altruistic reason, but an attempt by some members to armtwist the Interim Management Committee.

“We have faced so much pressure from some members of the National Assembly not to send certain files to forensic auditors. We fear that this will compromise the integrity of the exercise and have refused to do their bidding.

“We have also faced pressure from some members of the National Assembly to pay for 132 jobs, which have no proof of execution. We have refused to pay out N6.4 billion for those jobs. We believe that an IMC set up as a cleansing structure cannot become part of the old story of rot.”

The NDDC Chief Executive Officer observed that since the IMC came to make NDDC better and had a limited mandate till December, it had summoned the courage its predecessors did not have to tell Nigerians the truth.