Eno Ubi Otu, Director, Finance and Accounts of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have been arrested by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives in connection with an alleged diversion of over N25 billion in tax remittances.
According to Vanguard, the director had arrived at the anti-graft agency’s office in the early hours of Wednesday and was still being interrogated as of the evening of Wednesday.
Sources familiar with the issue disclosed that the arrest was part of an extensive investigation of the forensic audit report of the NDDC.
Wilson Uwujaren, the Commission’s spokesman, could not be reached for comment when Newsbreak.ng reporter tried reaching him for reactions. As a result, it was impossible to determine the specifics of how the N25 billion was stolen, how it was distributed, or who the beneficiaries were.
Recall that Nsima Ekere, a former managing director of the NDDC, was detained by the EFCC in May of this year on suspicion of corruption.
Due to corruption, the NDDC, an agency established to address the unique developmental challenges of Nigeria’s oil-producing states, has performed poorly in meeting its objectives.
Buhari in October 2020 mandated a forensic audit of the commission from its inception in 2001 to 2019.
However, the auditing process was met with a number of dramas involving accusations and denials, particularly between Godswill Akpabio, the minister for Niger Delta Affairs, and Joi Nunieh, the former managing director of the NDDC.
Nunieh claimed that Akpabio asked her to change the currency in the NDDC account, fire the northern-born head of the legal team, remove any directors who disobeyed his orders and bring charges against Peter Nwaoboshi, the head of the senate committee on NDDC.
In 2021, an audit report revealed that over 13,000 projects were abandoned in the region since the creation of the agency.
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