NDDC Awards #6bn Fingerlings Contracts without Ponds – Niger Delta Minister
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Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has said the previous administration at the Niger Delta Development, NDDC, awarded N6 billion contracts for fingerlings without providing fish ponds to deliver the services.
The former Akwa Ibom State Governor made the disclosure in Abuja, when a delegation of members of Petrol Station Owners Association, PESOA, Rivers State chapter visited him.
Akpabio, who noted that unprecedented rot characterized the previous management of the commission, said that there was no going back on the forensic audit of the activities of the commission.
He added that the outcome of the exercise would shock Nigerians to their bone marrow.
While reiterating the determination to reposition the commission for effective mandate delivery , vowed to remove all impediments that worked against the progress of the commission in the past.
He said that those from the Niger Delta region are forced to ask certain questions based on happenings in the Commission. The Minister said, “I was in this office when a young man walked in and asked me, Sir, what do I do?
“I was given a contract to supply fingerlings for N6 billion and I have N3 billion still in my account. I asked by whom, he said NDDC, I said when? And he said a few years ago but with this probe coming I don’t know what to do.
“My health is not good and I don’t want stress. Sir, can I return N3 billion out of the N6 billion? I said didn’t you supply, he said they didn’t give him where to supply to.
“Fingerlings is something that you supply to fish ponds, Am I right? Now N6 billion worth of fingerlings of fish ponds in Niger Delta and yet they didn’t have the fish pond but they wrote there are across 27 senatorial district.
“I think they like giving out contracts without doing the job. I keep telling people I am not just waking up. As a governor, I know there was something wrong with NDDC but I couldn’t pinpoint it, I could see the symptoms.
“So when I became a Minister of Niger Delta that’s when I found that the symptoms of failure that I used to see here is all about corruption. It was like an ATM for people to make money to go and contest elections.
“Whether I am here or not I believe we should change the story and the story can only change when we tell the truth. But a lot of people are not ready to tell the truth”.
The immediate past Senate Minority Leader stressed further that, “But one thing that I found out is that Niger Deltans hardly have a hand in the sharing of the contracts. When the National Assembly passes the project, they pass it innocently on what I call nine items, health 50 billion, education maybe or 40 just like that… so the details has to be worked out between the management of NDDC and the committees of the two houses.
“But these details were never worked to include the committees and the management of NDDC the details were rather handled by two Chairmen, Chairman of the house committee and chairman of the Senate Committee.
“That’s was what I was trying to explain to them but I wasn’t given the opportunity to. All I was trying to explain to them is that don’t hand over the fate of Niger Delta to only two people. They never allow others to have input.
