Top management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have been interrogated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for alleged complicity in the diversion of N5.474 billion meant for the purchase of personal protective equipment for health workers handling the COVID-19 pandemic in the nine oil producing states covered by the agency.
Spokesman for the ICPC, Mr. Azuka Oguagua who disclosed this in a statement on Saturday said some directors of NDDC were interrogated at the Commission’s headquarters recently, after months of intelligence gathering.
He also said the interrogation followed receipt of petitions from Nigerians on the alleged illegalities and contracts fraud by some officials of NDDC.
“The commission is also investigating the payments of millions of naira to staff of the agency for foreign trainings during the Covid-19 full lockdown which were never attended, as well as the non-payment of entitlements to students on foreign scholarships”
“Other allegations being investigated by ICPC include the selling of back-dated contract award letters for projects and awards of contracts that were not captured in the budget of the NDDC”
“ICPC had already retrieved relevant documents with which to continue investigations towards the recovery of diverted funds and prosecution of breaches of the law,” he said.
