Senate summons Ecological Fund officials over NDDC

The Senate has summoned officials of the Ecological Fund to appear before it next week over its failure to remit three (3) percent of the fund to the oil producing states in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari had told the Senate Committee on Niger Delta that the Fund has refused to remit the statutory three (3) per cent contribution of the oil producing states from the fund to the commission since 2001.

Media aide to the acting Managing Director, Bekee Anyalewechi told The Guardian that the NDDC management had repeatedly written to the Ecological Fund to release all the money due it from the fund but to no avail.

He also explained that all efforts to persuade the governors of the oil producing states has also not yielded any positive result.
Under the NDDC Act, all oil-producing states are expected to contribute 3 percent of their ecological fund to the NDDC. But Mrs. Semenitari while presenting the status report of the Commission to the senate committee on Niger Delta in Abuja, said none of the nine oil producing states has made their statutory contribution since the commission was established fifteen years ago.
Chairman Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, therefore gave the commission the assurance that it would help it recover all the monies due to it from the Ecological Fund.