Reps panel chairman withdraws from NDDC probe over corruption allegations

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, chairman of the house of representatives committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has recused himself from the probe.

Kemebradikumo Pondei, acting managing director of the NDDC, walked out on the committee last week after alleging that Tunji-Ojo and Peter Nwaoboshi, his counterpart at the senate, padded the 2019 budget of the commission.

At the meeting of the house committee on NDDC last Thursday, Pondei stormed out of the session after insisting that Tunji-Ojo, its chairman, would not preside.

He said Tunji-Ojo had been fingered in the alleged fraud at the NDDC and so, cannot sit over the same matter in which he is an accused.

His statement irked members of the committee which issued an arrest warrant against the NDDC acting MD and other members of the interim management committee.

The chairman was alleged to have been awarded a road contract by the NDDC, before the new interim management came on board.

But he had denied the allegation which he described as baseless, and challenged anyone with evidence to bring it forward.

“I am the Chairman of the House Committee on NDDC in the House of Representatives and I say without equivocation that I do not have any contract whatsoever at the commission,” Tunji-Ojo had said.