Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor-Kalu, has said that the focus of the ongoing forensic audit at the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) should be on missing funds and not works that were done.
Kalu stated this on Monday in a statement issued by Mr Emeka Nwala of the Office of the Senate Chief Whip while reacting to claims by Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio that 60 percent of contracts awarded by the commission were handled by members of the National Assembly.
Akapbio mentioned ex-governors Emmanuel Uduaghan, James Ibori, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, Senator Orji Uzor-Kalu, and others as beneficiaries of several contracts awarded by the NDDC.
The issue at stake in the NDDC has to do with missing funds and not works done, so the NDDC forensic audit should focus on the missing funds, Kalu said
He added that:
The road projects mentioned by the minister are the interventions I facilitated for the communities as a private citizen before I became a senator.
According to Kalu, his name was mentioned because he used his letter headed paper to write a sympathetic letter to NDDC in 2016 pleading with the commission to rescue roads in Abia.
The senator explained:
I was Governor of Abia between 1999 and 2007 and never held any public office until June 11, 2019, when I was sworn in as a senator.
Between 2016 and 2018 during my tour to several communities, leaders and welfare unions of most communities pleaded for urgent intervention on some dilapidated roads.
I wrote to the NDDC informing the body of the conditions of these roads and the need for their attention since Abia is an NDDC state.
The NDDC in their consideration which I am very grateful to awarded the roads to companies that duly tendered for the projects and not myself.
Whatever link I have with the projects is because it was considered due to my intervention.
The roads I requested for intervention as mentioned by the minister were repairs of Ezere-Acha-Ndiokoukwu road, Amaubiri-Eluama-Uru ring road and Lokpaukwu, Umuchieze Ndi Oji Abam-Atan road.
Others are Okafia-Ozuitem-Bende and Ozu-Amuru-Abam roads.
The contractors have completed and delivered these roads long time ago except Abam-Atani road, which I learned from the contractors was slowed down due to rain but still ongoing.
Meanwhile, the contractors who built these roads have not been paid any dime.
I am much concerned about roads because I understand the economic importance of good roads.
