NDDC, Nwaoboshi differ on alleged N3.6 billion contract by proxy

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, has been accused by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) of using proxies to secure a N3.6 billion contract from the interventionist agency.

It, however, denied awarding an unexecuted N500 million job to Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, as alleged by Nwaoboshi.

NDDC’s Director, Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, said the commission had searched through its records and found no such thing, adding that it was the Delta lawmaker that had questions to answer instead.

He claimed their findings revealed that Nwaoboshi used fronts to secure contracts valued at the above sum from the commission. His allegation: “Our records show that Senator Nwaoboshi used 11 front companies (owned or traceable to him) to secure a contract of N3.6 billion in September 2016, in what is perhaps the biggest single case of looting of the commission’s resources.

“The said companies/business names are: Noan Integrated Services; De Towers Constructions & Allied Services Ltd; Franstine Nigeria Enterprises; Edrihide Company; Isumabe U.K. Global; Benchmark Construction & Allied Services Ltd; Millstone Allied Builders Ltd.; Nelpat Nigeria Company; Agh-Rown Ventures; Edendoma Stars International, and Antlers Construction and Allied Works Ltd.”

Odili further alleged: “The inventory records show that these items were supplied and received on Senator Nwaoboshi’s business premises and warehouse. Meanwhile, the contracts were awarded to him.” He equally claimed that all supply agreements were signed by one person, “Mr. Agbamuche Nelson, traceable to Senator Nwaoboshi.”

According to him, the action was in flagrant contravention of sections 58(4) (a) and (d) of the Public Procurement Act. Reacting, Nwaoboshi refuted the claims.

In a statement issued yesterday by his Special Assistant on Legislative and Media Affairs, Luka Igbonoba in Abuja, the senator said the allegations were nothing but “national embarrassment that must stop.”

According to him, none of all the 11 companies listed belonged to him as far as records at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) were concerned. He challenged NDDC officials to substantiate their allegations with requisite documents.

“The smear campaign and character assassination of people perceived to be stumbling block against the rot in NDDC over the years must stop in the national interest,” Nwaoboshi added.

The document read in part: “The charade in the past weeks by the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission to blackmail a routine task of the National Assembly to perform its oversight function as stated in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has no doubt become a national embarrassment.

“More so, is the uncharitable and condemnable low of smear campaigns against members of the institution of the National Assembly.”Besides, the Odozi-Ani of Akwukwu Igbo kingdom, Chief Nelson Agbamuche, has distanced himself from any wrongdoings in the alleged handling of contracts for the NDDC.

Agbamuche, in a statement in Abuja, enjoined interest groups at war over the running of the agency to be wary of “telling lies and unsubstantiated accusations” against his person.