The house of representatives says it will probe the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) over the alleged mismanagement of N100 bi...
The house of representatives says it will probe the
North-East Development Commission (NEDC) over the alleged mismanagement of N100
billion.
The resolution of the house was sequel to a motion sponsored
by Ndudi Elumelu, minority leader of the house, on Thursday.
The commission was established in 2017 to reconstruct states
affected by insurgency in the north-east.
While moving his motion, Elumelu said the N100 billion given
to the commission by the federal government has “vanished” with nothing to show
for it
The Delta lawmaker accused Mohammed Goni Alkali,
commission’s managing director, of awarding non-existent contracts.
“The N100 billion so far disbursed to the commission by the
federal government is said to have vanished under a year without any visible
impact on the refugees nor any infrastructural development credited to the name
of the commission in the whole of the north-east,” Alkali said.
“The corrupt practices include high handedness by the
managing director, Mohammed Goni Alkali, over inflation of contracts, awards of
non existent contracts, massive contract splitting and flagrant disregard for
the procurement laws in the award of contracts.
“There are allegations of how the minister of humanitarian
affairs and disaster management, Sadiya Farouk, was said to have entered into
an unholy deal with the managing director of the commission to illegally
withdraw money for the purchase military vehicles without any recourse to the
board.
“The act, which completely disregards the country’s
procurement laws, must be seriously frowned at.”
The house adopted the motion after it was put to a voice
vote by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house.
The motion was referred to the house committees on finance,
procurement and NEDC. The report on the probe is expected to be turned in after
eight weeks.
The development is coming days after the house concluded its
investigation on the alleged mismanagement of N81.5 billion by the Niger Delta
Development Commission (NDDC).
The report on the NDDC probe is yet to be laid at the
plenary of the lower legislative chamber.
Source
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