An anti-corruption activist and chairman of Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum, Comrade Prince Kpokpogri, has reacted to the Senate probe of the minister of Niger Delta affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio and the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Comrade Kpokpogri described the move as a caricature and headless task, adding that the IMC is the best thing that has happened to the NDDC since inception.
He said this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Friday, while calling on the Niger Delta people to support Senator Akpabio in his quest to clean up the NDDC and position it to better the lives of the Niger Delta people according to the spirit of its creation.
The Senate had recently instituted a probe on Senator Akpabio’s activities.
Kpokpogri said what the Senate was doing by inviting the minister for questioning on the N40billion paid to certified contractors was a shot in the dark and legislative busy body.
“Is the National Assembly saying that contractors who were owed over a year ago should not be paid even after the contracts were certified duly executed?
“Are they aggrieved that some of their youth contractors had been denied opportunities for more fraudulent jobs? Or are they angry that there would be no more free money from contracts that were never executed?” he asked.
He, therefore, advised the Senate to stop chasing shadows and focus on COVID-19 pandemic, which he noted is a more pressing national issue.
He further stated that inviting Akpabio to question him on the money he got the president’s approval to pay contractors is nothing but a distraction.
The activist claimed that the probe could be diversionary, even as he accused some politicians of failing to use NDDC as a conduit pipe to stack money for 2023 election.
His words: “Let me tell the world that the Senate invitation on Akpabio is just an agenda to mount pressure on him to intimidate him, just for disappointing their fraudulent antics. But he should not be perturbed; it’s only but a game.
“I, Comrade Kpokpogri is saying that the Interim Management Committee is the best thing that has happened so far in NDDC. We have never had it this good in Niger Delta. Is the Senate saying that contractors should not be paid? It is high time this nonsense stopped.”
The commission while reacting to the alleged financial mismanagement by some media outfits, described the documents circulating on social media as fake.
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