The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Abubakar Momoh, yesterday morning shocked the nation with his admission that the forensic report on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is missing.
Momoh, an engineer, sweated on Channels TV Morning Brief programme to convince the presenters as to how he could not find the report which detailed how the N6 trillion approved for the commission was salted away by the NDDC from 2001 to 2019 through contracts and sundry shady deals.
The minister said he had asked for the report from the permanent secretary and other relevant staffers of his ministry upon the assumption of office last year, ”and till date, no one can tell where the report is”.
Stuttering at some point, Momoh explained that the report was submitted to President Buhari and not President Bola Tinubu.
However, when the programme presenters pressed him for clarity on the status of the report, the minister said when it is found, action would be taken against persons found culpable.
President Muhammadu Buhari, had on Thursday, September 2, 2021, received the final report of the forensic audit of the NDDC which detailed how N6 trillion approved for the commission was frittered.
Buhari, who was represented by the then Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, received the documents, which were conveyed in sacks and presented by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
Shortly before handing over the report, Akpabio, said the forensic audit covered a total of 13,777 contracts that were awarded from 2001 to 2019 at a final contract value of over N3 trillion.
Responding after he received the report, the AGF noted that the Federal Government approved about N6 trillion for the NDDC in 18 years.
He lamented that a huge chunk of funds the Commission received for the development of the Niger Delta region was diverted into private pockets, noting that the execution of 13,777 projects were substantially compromised.
Malami said the essence of the forensic audit was to ensure probity and accountability in the use of public funds.
He added that the Federal Government was concerned that the NDDC operated a total of 362 bank accounts, leading to “lack of proper reconciliation of accounts”.
Saying that the Buhari-led government would subsequently apply the law to remedy the deficiencies outlined in the audit report, Malami disclosed that the government would as well recover the funds that were not properly utilised for the public purposes they were meant.
He said in a statement which read in part: “I welcome you all to the presentation of the Report on the forensic audit of the Niger Delta Commission (NDDC), which report I am to receive on behalf of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.
“You will recall the President had ordered for a holistic forensic audit of the activities of the Commission from inception to August 2019, in response to the yearnings of the people of the Niger Delta Region to reposition it for effective service delivery.
“It is imperative to state that the call for the audit by the people of the Niger Delta Region arose from the huge gaps between resources invested in the region vis a vis the huge gap in infrastructural, human and economic development.”
