…to grill him over funds unaccounted for
Senate says it has discovered fresh multi-billion naira fraud involving the acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Prof Daniel Pondei.
Pondei has already been invited by the Senate to appear before it on Wednesday to explain how he allegedly mismanaged billions of funds belonging to the commission.
Recall that the acting NDDC MD had collapsed while testifying recently before the House of Representatives panel probing the financial malfeasance at the commission, causing commotion.
Already, the Senate said it had received fresh fraud allegations against the NDDC management.
It stated that the new financial infractions were not captured in the list of the allegation of N40bn reckless spending which a whistle-blower recently brought against the NDDC.
The Senate said the fresh probe had been handed over to its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to deal with.
Chairman of the panel, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, confirmed the development in Abuja.
Akinyelure explained that the NDDC acting Managing Director, Pondei, would be summoned after the Senate panel had concluded its public hearing involving the United Bank for Africa Plc and the liquidators of the defunct NITEL/EMTEL, scheduled for next Wednesday.
According to the lawmaker, “There is a petition that has just been sent to my committee by the leadership of the Senate.
“I received it on Tuesday. It is about the alleged fraudulent practices of the acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission.
“I will take my time to study the petition. Our committee will invite him as soon as we conclude hearing on the case involving the UBA, which is before our committee.
“We will invite the MD to come and explain to the whole world how he allegedly misappropriated billions of funds as the head of the agency.”
Akinyelure, who did not give details about the petition against Pondei, however, said the NDDC boss would also answer questions about allegations of contract scam against some federal lawmakers.
He said, “He (Pondei) will also tell Nigerians about the details of the senators who allegedly took gratification and contracts from him.
“He must come and prove it beyond reasonable doubts. No senator awards contracts. We can only facilitate project allocation for our various constituencies.
“We don’t even know when the executive would advertise those projects.
“Our job is to ensure that the project is executed. If any Senator or House of Representatives member had gone to the NDDC management to take money or contract, we will ask the MD to expose such a person.
“The NDDC should stop blackmailing the entire Senate. We have 109 members in the Senate. We are celebrated Nigerians.
“We were millionaires before we came into the Senate. We had jobs. All the allegations against us are fallacy of the highest order.”
It was learnt that the fresh petition against Pondei was sent to the Senate leadership after the ad hoc panel had concluded its probe of the NDDC and submitted its report.
Last week, the report of the panel, led by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, was considered and approved by Senate before the lawmakers proceeded on their annual vacation.
But Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, however, gave a hint about some of the fresh allegations against Pondei in a statement last week.
Nwaoboshi had while reacting to the allegations by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, wondered why he chose to blackmail lawmakers instead of checking the alleged daily reckless spending in the NDDC, despite its probe by the National Assembly.
Nwaoboshi alleged that the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC under Pondei paid N39.4m to a media outfit, Messrs Clear Point Consultancy, to defend media attacks against Akpabio.
He alleged that Pondei’s IMC was using taxpayers’ money to launder Akpabio’s image.
The senator also said the IMC was allegedly paying N51.8m every month as an allowance to Pondei while other members of the team were allegedly being paid N18m monthly.
Nwaoboshi said, “The above revelations are just a tip of the mind-boggling and reckless payments running into billions of naira by the IMC members to themselves and expended with the approval of Mr Akpabio.”
The Senate had last Thursday called for the dissolution of the IMC.
It also asked the embattled IMC, led by Pondei, to refund an extra-budgetary expenditure amounting to N4.923bn to the NDDC accounts.
Senate took the decision after approving the recommendations of its ad hoc committee.
The ad hoc panel was set up to unravel the alleged financial recklessness at the NDDC between October 2019 and May 2020.
The Senate asked the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in the Presidency to take over the supervisory role of the NDDC.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had said the report would be submitted to the President Muhammadu Buhari, who according to him, was “eagerly expecting it.”