The National Assembly has opened fresh probe on the Niger-Delta Development Commission, NDDC, over alleged diversion of N6.2 billion palliative fund.
The fresh probe follows a petition dated August 3, 2020, which was submitted to the National Assembly by the Chairman of the NDDC Palliative Distribution Committee, High Chief, Sobomabo Jackrich, calling for thorough investigation of how the Interim Management Committee (IMC) utilized the money.
Jackrich told the National Assembly that the Managing Director, keme Pondei and the Executive Director of Projects, Cairo Ojuogboh lied about how the money was expended when they appeared before the probe panel of the Senate.
According to him, the IMC cannot account for the money and that there was no sign of such expenditure anywhere in the Niger Delta.
Jackrich said the N6.5 billion Palliative fund is different from the N1.5 billion the IMC said it spent as relief fund on its staff and the Police for the purchase of face masks and hand sanitizers.
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He explained that President Muhammadu Buhari had in April set up the Palliative Distribution Committee to cushion the impact of Covid-19 on the people.
The petitioner further alleged that only a handful of food items were distributed and dubiously captured on camera to give the false impression that palliatives had been distributed.
He accused the IMC of hijacking the exercise from his committee; and politically sharing the materials in their own areas of choice.
Jackrich said the IMC even tried to bribe him with bags of rice and beans to play along with them in what he described as a charade and show of shame.
“This appears to me as a coverup plot. MOST of the food items that they claimed to have distributed were spoilt and unhealthy for human consumption. Thus only the IMC can tell where they got those poisonous and rotten food items from. The next thing we hear surprisingly is that the Palliatives has been distributed.
I managed to monitor from a distance the charade and show-off since I and my Committee was stripped of our assignments by the IMC in the distribution processes and left us incommunicado. All needed logistics that my Committee was supposed to work with was entirely denied us”.
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Jackrich said the IMC also embezzled the fund for medical equipment and staged managed the distribution with old items stocked in the agency’s warehouse.
“As chairman of the Palliatives Distribution Committee, I am aware that what was distributed under the guise of medical equipment were old goods and wares in the Commission’s warehouses which was put on Camera just to deceive the unsuspecting public and mislead the President. This too was staged.
No single kits or COVID-19 Test Centres were set up by the Commission in the Nine Niger Delta states till date. It is for the records that I state these facts. The money for Palliatives approved by Mr President was allegedly corruptly diverted by the IMC in concert with identifiable powerful forces and so cannot be accounted for”.
The petition said the mismanagement by the IMC has greatly compromised peace and security in the Niger-Delta.
