The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested the director, finance and account of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Eno Ubi Otu, for the alleged diversion of over N25 billion tax remittances.
The suspect who arrived at the commission in the early hours of Wednesday was still being interrogated as of press time.
A source told the Guardian that the arrest was part of a larger investigation of the forensic audit report of the NDDC.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2019 authorised a forensic audit of the NDDC following allegations of widespread corruption at the agency.
This was due to reports of how several NDDC projects were abandoned or non-existent despite the release of millions of naira for them.
In September 2021, attorney-general of the federation, Abubakar Malami received the NDDC forensic audit report on behalf of the president.
On December 30, 2021, the President said his administration will recover “every kobo” mismanaged or looted from the commission, adding that culprits will face the wrath of the law.
The Niger Delta minister, Godswill Akpabio, had also said the NDDC was treated like an ATM where officials just went to steal public funds.
It was also gathered that following the audit, contractors who abandoned their projects rushed back to the site to avoid prosecution by the EFCC
A few others were said to have returned all monies paid to them before they left their contracts uncompleted.
The EFCC had beamed its searchlight on the errant contractors in line with Federal Government’s directive after scrutinising NDDC’s forensic report.
On the arrest of Otu, the spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, could not be reached for confirmation.
Source: The Guardian
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