The House of Representatives Committee probing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has on Tuesday given the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio a 48 hours ultimatum to provide the names of lawmakers that got contracts from the commission.
This is coming barely 24 hours after Akpabio accused members of the National Assembly, NASS, of being the beneficiaries of most of the contracts from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The House of Reps is currently investigating the misappropriation of N40 billion at the NDDC, and Akpabio claims over half the contracts were handed to lawmakers.
At an investigative hearing on the alleged misappropriation of funds amounting to N40 billion in the NDDC, Akpabio had said that 60% of contracts in the commission were awarded to lawmakers.
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Akpabio had stated that, “So it is important that people who have gone to court, people who genuinely did jobs should be paid for their jobs. For me, I am not against it because, of course, who are even the greatest beneficiaries? It is you people.”
However, the Speaker of House, Femi Gbajabimila, ordered the Minister to provide the names of Lawmakers who benefitted from the commission’s contract.
Gbajabimila insisted that Akpabio must provide names of the persons, the sum of the contracts received, locations and companies used to exercise the contracts.
He noted that failure to deliver on or before the ultimatum elapsed would attract serious consequences.
He stated that Senator Akpabio was making baseless accusations to cause distractions in the probe.
