Indications emerged on Tuesday night detailing the reason why the Professor Nelson Brambaifa-led interim leadership of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC was sacked.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Tuesday approved the composition of the new Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.
The interim management which was headed by Professor Brambaifa was equally directed to hand-over to the most senior Director in the Commission.
Inside sources explained that the interim board was not confirmed because of the changing political dynamics in the region and the corruption which had stained its credibility.
The Brambaifa-led board was mainly made of party chieftains loyal to the minister of transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi who was also accused of monumental corruption in the running of the commission.
Leaders in the region had frowned at the abuse of funds from the commission for the political expediency of those loyal to the minister of transportation.
The interim board was banking on Amaechi’s re-appointment as minister for its confirmation and was also said to be bribing senior presidency officials.
Sources said that with the emergence of Ovie Omo-Agege as the Deputy Senate President, which is the highest-ranking political position in the region, it was impossible for Amaechi to continue to dictate what happens in the region in terms of appointments.
According to one of the sources, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomole who is at loggerheads with Amaechi over the later’s handling of the party’s congresses which led to the disqualification of the party in Rivers State during the 2019 elections, had an alliance with Omo-Agege, the immediate past senator representing Rivers South-East senatorial district in the National Assembly, Magnus Abe; the minister of Niger Delta affairs, Godswill Akpabio and other leaders from the region.
These new alliances produced the members of the new board of the commission with Omo-Agege’s loyalist becoming the new MD while Oshiomole’s loyalist took the chairmanship position while Abe and Akpabio’s loyalists took membership positions.
But many things worked against Brambaifa, the sources said. Over N40billion was looted from the commission in the first few months of the interim board, according to findings from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The former MD, it was gathered, used his sons Christopher and David Braimbraifa to coordinate the looting in the commission.
Investigators at EFCC reportedly traced huge unexplained sums to Zenith Bank, UBA and some others where unexplained billions linked to senior members of the board are lodged. Christopher Braimbraifa who was recently quizzed by operatives of the EFCC was reported to have given valuable information.
Companies like ESCOBAR Nigeria Limited and Diamond D NSKY which are also being investigated by the commission was said to have received unexplained payments. Investigators say the two companies have been used as conduits to loot funds from the commission.
Investigators were questioning why the Ag MD would have his sons, Christopher as Chief of Staff and, David, as Special Assistant with both children of the MD being linked to a discrete N300million payment for a contract which was never done.
But nailing the coffin of the interim board was the N50billion reportedly awarded to Standard Alliance Insurance which is owned by the Delta APC Governorship aspirant, Ortega Emerhor who is said to be the Godfather of Sam Adjogbe, the Director of Project.
The EFFC in its investigation confirmed that funds are being diverted from the NDDC account domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to commercial banks and so blocked any payments instruction from the accounts of NDDC to accounts of corporate bodies domiciled in commercial banks until further notice.
This made it impossible for genuine contractors working for the commission to receive payments for jobs they did for the commission.
The former interim board was regarded as a cesspool of corruption with Tony Orilade, the Spokesman of the EFCC saying “It (NDDC) is a cesspool of corruption and I can confirm the authenticity of the letter to the Banks to stop payment instructions from NDDC. Our men have commenced an investigation”
