Patricia Etteh, Nsima Ekere; how forensic audit of the NDDC is making heads to roll, more arrests imminent
A former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Nsima Ekere was grilled by the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged link with the diversion of funds to the tune of N47 billion.
Platforms Africa reports that the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren, who made this disclosure to journalists on Wednesday, gave details of how the alleged N47 billion racket landed Ekere in trouble.
It was learnt that Ekere, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) willingly surrendered himself for questioning after getting hints on the investigation conducted by the EFCC on NDDC following allegations of massive corruption.
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It was further gathered that the anti-graft agency had placed Ekere on its radar of allegations for diverting N47 billion through fake contracts between 2017 and 2019.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2019 ordered a forensic audit of the NDDC.
Buhari had decried the massive corruption in the NDDC, vowing that his administration would recover every kobo stolen from the agency.
Following the conclusion of the Forensic report, it was revealed that a total of 13,000 projects were abandoned in the Niger Delta region since the creation of the NDDC.
The report of the audit committee showed that there are over 13,000 abandoned projects in the Niger Delta and even before the submission of the report some contractors have returned to site on their own and completed about 77 road projects,” former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Senator Godswill Akpabio said when he submitted the audit report to Buhari in September 2021.
Ekere was the NDDC’s managing director from 2016 to 2018 before resigning to take part in the 2019 governorship election in Akwa Ibom but lost to Governor Udom Emmanuel.
