Still smarting from the public humiliation it received from the sordid spectacle of the current Acting Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Professor Keme Pondei walking out on the House Committee on the NDDC, after accusing the committee chair of having vested interests in the ongoing corruption investigation, and the same committee issuing a warrant of arrest to call Pondei to order, House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, yesterday issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, to publish the names, companies, contract and payment details of the lawmakers he accused of having been awarded contracts at the NDDC.
Gbaja warned that failure to publish details of the alleged contracts would attract the full weight of the law. He did not say which law; neither did he disclose how Akpabio will face the law. Appearing before the House committee investigating the sleaze-prone agency on Monday, Akpabio threw a spanner in the works when he alleged that 60% of contracts in the commission were awarded to lawmakers. This attracted the anger of the House Minority whip, Ndudi Elumelu (PDP-Delta), who raised a point of order that was entertained and ruled upon by the Speaker.
A visibly irritated Gbaja accused Akpabio of trying to divert the committee’s investigation with baseless allegations which he said, amounted to a distraction. He recalled that ahead of the probe, the acting NDDC chairman made a similar accusation against the chairman of the Committee on NDDC, Olubumi Tunji-Ojo (APC-Ondo), without any evidence; forcing Tunji-Ojo to recuse himself from the investigation.
The same Prof. Pondei who walked out on the committee and was threatened with an arrest warrant eventually showed up at the House yesterday, and when lawmakers reminded him that he and his colleagues had used the excuse of Covid-19 to misappropriate funds that were not covered in the approved NDDC Budget, he started fanning himself inside the air-conditioned room and later pretended to have passed out as he slumped atop his table! His detractors argue that he was merely playing his role: an Acting MD, acting out a scene in the NDDC drama.
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a forensic audit of the commission, which is supposed to be ongoing but recent revelations that contractors and NDDC officials have stolen and squandered N81.5 billion within a six-month period is at best stupefying; the sheer scale of it is benumbing. It remains to be seen what will happen to Akpabio when the 48-hour ultimatum expires by close of business today.
