THE Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has denied saying that members of the National Assembly were the major beneficiaries of contracts awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who announced the receipt of Akpabio’s letter denying that the lawmakers got 60 per cent of NDDC contracts, said his response would be referred to to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges to assess his arguments, based on their merits.
He said Akpabio claimed that he had, at the hearing, referred to old contracts awarded by the NDDC, which had not been paid for, as well as some contracts that were part of the lawmakers’ constituency projects.
This latest development followed the resolution by the House, earlier on Thursday, to drag Akpabio to court for alleged Perjury.
In the letter sent to the House of Representatives, Akpabio said he only referred to “60 per cent” in response to a question on whether a medical doctor could be appointed executive director of NDDC.
He added that NDDC’s Executive Director, Projects, forwarded to him a list of 19 contracts, which the Chairman of the House Committee on NDDC insisted must be paid for before the 2020 budget of the commission was passed.
The minister reportedly said that the NDDC had not executed any contract under the 2020 budget since it had not been passed, adding that the 2019 budget was passed in April and had not been implemented.
He said, “As to the reference to 60 per cent of contracts, the investigative committee refused to give me opportunity to explain that; I was responding to a question by a member of the committee.
“Permit me to explain that any reference to 60 per cent during the investigative hearing was in answer to a question by a member of the committee as to whether or not, a medical doctor could act as Executive Director, Project, which I answered in affirmative; that the greatest project in the world today is COVID-19, which is medical in nature.
“Further more, I am made to understand that 60 per cent of NDDC’s yearly budget are medical in nature, therefore it is better for a medical doctor to serve as the Executive Director, Projects.”
Gbajabiamila, on behalf of the House, had, on Tuesday, given the minister 48 hours to publish the names of lawmakers that benefitted from the controversial NDDC contracts.
