THE Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has quizzed top management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), over allegations bothering on diversion of funds, procurement fraud and misappropriation of the Commission’s COVID-19 funds.
The ICPC in a statement on Saturday said some directors of NDDC were interrogated at the Commission’s headquarters recently, after months of intelligence gathering.
It said the interrogation followed the receipt of petitions from Nigerians on alleged illegalities and contracts fraud by some officials of the NDDC.
“The NDDC officials are being investigated for 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 ICPC statement read.
The anti-graft agency stated that it is also investigating the payments of millions of naira to staff of the agency for foreign training during the COVID-19 full lockdown which were never attended, as well as the non-payment of entitlements to students on foreign scholarships.
“Other allegations being investigated by ICPC include the selling of back-dated contract award letters for projects and awards of contracts that were not captured in the budget of the NDDC”, the statement read.
The Commission noted that relevant documents with which to continue investigations towards the recovery of diverted funds and prosecution of breaches of the law have been retrieved.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.