Benjamin Babine, Abuja
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has questioned the top management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), on the various corruption allegations of diversion of public funds.
The commission who disclosed this in a statement signed by its Spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Ogogua, said that some directors of the NDDC were interrogated at the Commission’s headquarters after months of intelligence gathering, after receiving petitions from Nigerians on the alleged illegalities and contracts fraud by some officials of the agency.
She said: “Top officials of the agency are being investigated for their complicity in an alleged diversion of N5.474 billion meant for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers handling the Covid-19 pandemic in the nine states 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.”
The commission said that it is investigating other allegations bothering on 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 says it had already retrieved relevant documents with which to continue investigations towards the recovery of diverted funds and prosecution of breaches of the law.