N5.4b fraud: ICPC quizzes NDDC directors, recovers documents

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has quizzed top management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission and recovered documents on the diversion of funds, procurement fraud and misappropriation of N5.4 billion COVID-19 fund by the officials.

The ICPC said some NDDC directors were interrogated at its headquarters in Abuja after months of intelligence gathering, following the receipt of petitions from Nigerians on the alleged illegalities and contract fraud by some officials of the agency.

The ICPC spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua, said the commission is also investigating the payment of millions of naira to staff of the NDDC for foreign training during the COVID-19 lockdown which they never attended, as well as the non-payment of entitlements to students on foreign scholarships.

Ogugua in a statement on Saturday titled, ‘ICPC quizzes NDDC directors, other officials,’ said, “The officials of the agency were also being investigated for their complicity in the alleged diversion of N5.474bn meant for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment for health workers handling the COVID-19 pandemic in the nine states of NDDC.

“Other allegations being investigated by the anti-graft agency include the selling of back-dated contract award letters for projects and awards of contracts that were not captured in the budget of the NDDC.”

“ICPC had already retrieved relevant documents with which to continue investigations towards the recovery of diverted funds and prosecution of breaches of the law,” the commission stated.