You must publish names of lawmakers awarded NDDC contracts- Reps tell Akpabio
The last has not been heard regarding the faceoff between the House of Representatives and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
In a statement
released by its spokesperson, Benjamin Kalu on Tuesday, July 28, the House is
insisting that the Minister must publish the names of the lawmakers that have
been awarded. The House in the statement said the minister failed to substantiate
the allegation that national assembly members get most of the NDDC contracts.
While appearing
before a panel probing the alleged mismanagement of N81.5 billion by the
interim management committee (IMC) of the NDDC, Akpabio had said federal lawmakers
were the biggest beneficiaries of the contracts awarded by the commission.
Subsequently, the
speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, gave the minister a 48-hour ultimatum
to publish the names of the legislators who got those contracts or face legal
action. Akpabio in a response letter, listed some senators and house of reps
members as beneficiaries but they all denied getting the contracts. The House
on July 23 resolved to issue a criminal complaint of perjury and civil
defamation lawsuit against Akpabio after he failed to publish the names of
members of the National Assembly that have been awarded contracts by the Niger
Delta Development Commission NDDC.
Kalu in the
statement released on Tuesday evening, July 28 accused Akpabio of sending a
private letter to the speaker instead of publishing the names of those he
accused of being beneficiaries of NDDC contracts.
“Instead of
publishing the list for the world to see in the interest of transparency, the
Minister in his usual diversionary tactics, chose to send an irrelevant
8-paragraph private letter to the Speaker regarding projects of 2018 which
pre-date the 9th House of Representatives and had little to do with the bogus
claims he made.
The House,
therefore, reiterates that the Minister was given an ultimatum to publish names
and not to write a personal letter to the Speaker. The Honourable Minister is
hereby cautioned to desist from spinning tales and is invited to go public as
instructed.” the statement read
Kalu said Akpabio’s
letter was irrelevant to the issues raised, adding that the lawmakers were
already evaluating the minister’s response and are still considering taking
legal action against him if he fails to publish in detail the names of the
lawmakers that have been awarded contracts by the Commission.
Read below the
statement from Kalu
Following a motion
unanimously adopted by the House, an investigation was ordered into the
activities and financial malfeasance of the Niger Delta Development Commission
(NDDC) and its Interim Management Committee (IMC) between the periods of
January to May 2020.
In a coordinated and
calculated attempt to distract Nigerians from the ongoing investigation, the
Minister of NDDC and the leadership of the IMC raised spurious allegations
against members of the National Assembly.
The Minister claimed
under oath that 60% of all the NDDC projects under investigation were awarded
to members of the House between the months of January and May 2020.
Following this
disturbing allegation, the leadership of the 9th House issued a 48-hour
ultimatum to the Minister to publish a list of the legislators allegedly
awarded 60% of the entire projects of NDDC between January and May 2020.
Instead of
publishing the list for the world to see in the interest of transparency, the
Minister in his usual diversionary tactics, chose to send an irrelevant
8-paragraph private letter to the Speaker regarding projects of 2018 which
pre-date the 9th House of Representatives and had little to do with the bogus
claims he made.
The House,
therefore, reiterates that the Minister was given an ultimatum to publish names
and not to write a personal letter to the Speaker. The Honourable Minister is
hereby cautioned to desist from spinning tales and is invited to go public as
instructed.
Nevertheless, it
will interest Nigerians to know that paragraph 3 of the Minister’s letter fully
exonerated the 9th Assembly. Also, in paragraph 7, the Minister completely
withdrew his previous statement about 60% of the NDDC projects being awarded to
members of the 9th Assembly.
It is also
instructive for Nigerians to note that the total number of projects in the 2019
NDDC budget was 5,959 out of which 5,416 projects were rolled over from 2018,
which the 9th Assembly obviously had no influence or control over.
Therefore, unable to
prove his claims, the Minister presented an ineffectual spreadsheet of only 266
projects out of which about 20 projects were attracted by past members of the
National Assembly as constituency projects, not as contractors, but in
furtherance of their representative mandate.
The projects
presented in the Minister’s letter are not within the scope of the
investigation and do nothing to address the leadership’s ultimatum for him to
publish the list of names of the members who he claimed took 60% of NDDC
projects from January to May 2020.
Also, contrary to
the mischievous narrative being peddled on the internet, the only mention of
the Chairman of the NDDC Committee of the 9th House of Representatives, Rep.
Tunji Ojo in that letter, was as to his alleged request for the complete
payment of 19 contractors who had approached him with complaints over NDDC’s
non-payment for their services.
This is, however, an
allegation which has been completely refuted by Rep. Ojo and for which there is
no evidence linking him.
The one member of
the House mentioned in that letter only attracted the project to his federal
constituency, in the same manner that the NDDC MD, EDFA, EDP, Chairman etc
applied to the Commission for attention to the needs of their people and were
obliged.
This attraction of
projects does not in any way mean that contracts were personally awarded to
them.
Additionally, the
letter also listed the names of contract awardees with no evidence linking them
to those who attracted the projects to the beneficiary communities. It takes
lifting the corporate veil for the directors to be seen and the Corporate
Affairs Commission is there to establish who the real owners of the companies
are.
Until then, it is
wrong to attempt to establish a nexus which currently does not exist. The
document remains a mere spreadsheet of people who attracted projects to their
communities in furtherance of their representative functions.
Furthermore, the
directive to press charges against the Minister has not been lifted by the
House as the leadership is busy considering the weight of the Honourable
Minister’s letter. If it does not clear the doubt and wrong perception, it will
be sent to the court for clearance as the Speaker stated.
Once again, the
letter’s annexures showing 2018 projects have no relevance to what was
requested from the Minister because it was outside the scope of his claims, it
was also not comprehensive but selective by mentioning only one current member
for attracting projects to his constituency and not for receiving contracts.
The House is mindful
of a letter currently before it where the Minister also applied to attract
several projects to his Senatorial Zone during his time at the Senate, does it
mean the contracts were awarded to him?
Nigerians are
encouraged to ignore the deflections of the Honourable Minister and continue to
ask the right questions as to what happened to the money of the region which
has led to a gross disservice to Niger-Deltans.
Nigerians should
start asking the right questions and demanding the right answers; and the right
question remains, “What happened to Nigeria’s ?81.5billion under the charge of
NDDC in the space of 6 months?”
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