Gbenro Adesina
The Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has written the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, demanding the refund of ₦2,552,305,600.00 being payment for unexecuted projects.
In a letter dated July 5, 2020 and signed by the Director, Legal Services, Peter Claver Okoro, Esq., the NDDC said that in 2017, the Commission awarded contracts to certain companies for the production of desks and chairs for primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta region under the 2016 budget of the Commission.
It was stated that the total value of the said contracts was ₦2,552,305,600.00.
However, instead of supplying the chairs and desks to the Commission’s warehouse in Port Harcourt or to any of the NDDC offices in the nine Niger Delta States, the items were supplied to a warehouse described as Akuede Akwis’ located at Benin Expressway, Okpanam, before Wichetech Aluminum Company.
The letter said that despite having been fully paid for the 2017 contracts for the production of chairs and desks, the items have not been supplied to the Commission.
“The resultant effect is that the Commission and the Niger Delta region have been deprived of the use of the desks and chairs”.
The NDDC gave the Senator 14 days to refund the said sum.
