NDDC’s N2tr debt used for emergency projects, says Odili

Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has declared that a large percentage of its N2 trillion debt was used to award emergency projects due to delayed passage of its budget.

The commission stated that when the budget did come on time, previous managements had taken to the same action to solve an emergency.

NDDC Head of Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, explained, “It is not a thing that we are continuing with. But we are dealing with it as something that happened in the past.”

Lamenting that the commission’s 2019 budget was never implemented, appealed for quick approval of the 2020 budget.

“When there is a staccato of voices, where there is a lack of unanimity of purpose, as we have seen in recent times, the Niger Delta region suffers for it. The Interim Management Committee (IMC) was instituted by President Muhammadu Buhari through the Office of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs to provide the enabling atmosphere for the forensic audit to thrive. We should not detract from this assignment. Let us give them a chance to succeed,” he said.

Odili debunked allegations of missing funds from NDDC coffers, saying only N33 billion had been paid to its vendors since the inception of the expanded IMC.