ICPC moves against NDDC top management over corruption allegations, quizzes directors

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has interrogated the top management staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over allegations of numerous acts of corruption.
Some of those corruption allegations include diversion of funds, procurement fraud, and misappropriation of the agency’s COVID-19 funds.
The disclosure was made in a press statement which was issued by the ICPC on Saturday, August 29, 2020.
Some of the directors of NDDC were interrogated at the Commission’s headquarters recently, 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 statement pointed out that top officials of the agency are being investigated for their complicity in an alleged diversion of N5.474 billion meant for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers handling the COVID-19 pandemic in the 9 states of NNDC.
The Commission is also investigating the payments of millions of naira to the staff of the agency for foreign training during the COVID-19 full lockdown which were never attended, as well as the non-payment of entitlements to students on foreign scholarships.
The ICPC is investigating other allegations like, the selling of back-dated contract award letters for projects and award of contracts that were not captured in the budget of the NDDC.
The corruption agency had already retrieved relevant documents that would aid its investigations towards the recovery of diverted funds and prosecution of breaches of the law.