Just In: NDDC suspends N1bn monthly payment to powerful consultant

Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has suspended the monthly payment of N1 billion to a consultant who collects accrued money from International Oil Companies on its behalf.

Joi Nunieh, the acting Managing Director of the commission in an interaction with newsmen at the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt on Tuesday said the Commission did not need middlemen to collect statutory funds due to it from multinationals.

According to her: “We have a consulting firm engaged as a collection agent. We have another company that also collects three per cent whenever money is paid by the International Oil Companies, IOCs.

“We don’t need a middle man to collect three per cent for gas. The money should just be paid into NDDC accounts with the CBN.”

She said the mounting political interference was setting the Commission back, adding that her desk has overflown with files waiting for payments, even from companies belonging to one individual.

She asked: “How can someone have 87 companies waiting for payment?”

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Nunieh said that despite political interference, she was not going to compromise.

“That is why I have suspended the contract of a collection agent. We are no longer going to pay anyone N1 billion every month. That is wicked.

“That money can put mono pumps in rural communities in the Niger Delta. It can buy books and set up primary health centres. The three per cent for a consulting firm is over. That is why we are under pressure. But I laugh because those who live in glass houses should never throw stones.”

“What is happening is very embarrassing. We must all get up and know that these people have taken our commonwealth.”

The NDDC boss said that things were beginning to look up as many contractors have gone back to sites since she mounted the saddle as the MD/CEO. “We have about 57 contractors that have gone back to sites. I am encouraging everyone to go back to the site so that things will be done properly. Those that actually execute their contracts will be paid,” she assured.

On the opposition to the interim board and questions over its legitimacy, Nunieh wondered why people were misconstruing the situation, observing that although the NDDC Act was silent on the matter of an Interim Management Committee, IMC, the President had the right to set up the body.

“The NDDC Act is clear on the matter of the Commission’s chairmanship. It says that after Cross River State, Delta State is supposed to produce the Chairman of the NDDC board. If the Act says that after Cross River, Delta should produce the chairman, why would anyone say no?

“When the governors of the South-South states, led by Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, visited President Muhammadu Buhari, he assured them that he would comply with the Act setting up the NDDC in taking decisions concerning the agency.

“We are trying to see how quickly we can get water to every village before long. We will try to see how we can use existing infrastructure to get water to the villages.

“No big contractors. Get the locals who are plumbers to get the mono-pumps to work. We are going to take development to the people and that is why you no longer see the young men hanging around our gates. We have asked them to go back to their communities and we will meet them there.

“We are going to give awards for the cleanest villages in the Niger Delta. We are going to see who has the cleanest waterfronts. Everyone will take care of their waterfronts and the Niger Delta will be green again.”

“Our people must be helped to stay alive and healthy. Look at the United Nation Environmental Project, UNEP, report which states that one in eight Ogonis would die of cancer. So, you can imagine the situation in other parts of the Niger Delta.”