{"id":27399,"date":"2020-07-19T15:43:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-19T14:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=27399"},"modified":"2020-07-19T15:43:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T14:43:34","slug":"part-6-nddc-corruption-bazaar-suspend-akpabio-probe-n81-5b-corruption-serap-tells-buhari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=27399","title":{"rendered":"Part 6 NDDC Corruption Bazaar: Suspend Akpabio, probe N81.5b corruption, SERAP tells Buhari"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>N81.5bn: SERAP writes Buhari, seeks presidential panel to probe \u2018corruption in NDDC\u2019<\/strong><br \/>\nSocio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to \u201cuse his leadership position to urgently set up a presidential investigative panel to probe grave corruption allegations in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), including allegations that the agency illegally spent N81.5 billion, on travels, \u2018condolences\u2019, consultancy and \u2018public communication between January and July 2020.\u201d<br \/>\nThe organization also asked him to \u201cimmediately suspend Mr Godswill Akpabio, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs and all those implicated in the allegations pending the outcome of any such investigation. Witnesses and whistle-blowers must be protected and the findings of the investigation should be made public. Where there is relevant admissible evidence, suspected perpetrators should be handed over to appropriate anti-corruption agencies for prosecution.\u201d<br \/>\nIn the letter dated 18 July, 2020 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said: \u201cThese are extremely serious allegations. Nigerians expect that those who run the NDDC should be free of corruption, and should enjoy no impunity. Nigerians who want to see development and prosperity in the Niger Delta will want you to take the lead to get to the bottom of these allegations and take appropriate and decisive action to address them.\u201d<br \/>\nAccording to SERAP, \u201cA special panel to probe allegations of corruption in the NDDC, and that is able to work closely with anti-corruption agencies would protect the integrity of the forensic audit, remove the possibility of obstruction of justice, and interference in the process by those suspected to be involved in alleged corruption in the NDDC.\u201d<br \/>\nSERAP said: \u201cThe investigation by the National Assembly has been controversial, and has reportedly turned into a \u2018dirty fight\u2019 between the NDDC and the National Assembly. Similarly, the hearings have reportedly indicted lawmakers of both the Senate and House of Representatives.\u201d<br \/>\nSERAP also said: \u201cAny perception of politicisation and bias in the investigation of the corruption allegations in the NDDC would undermine public trust in the process, and ultimately, the public interest and good government, as well as justice for the victims of corruption in the Niger Delta.\u201d<br \/>\nThe letter, read in part: \u201cSERAP is concerned that allegations of systemic and widespread corruption in the NDDC are not only punishable offences but also directly undermine the human rights of Nigerians, especially the people of the Niger Delta.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cSERAP notes that your government has expressed the commitment to \u2018get to the root of the problem undermining the NDDC.\u2019 However, the most effective way to \u2018get to the root\u2019 of the corruption problem in the agency, and to ensure and protect the integrity of a forensic audit is to establish a special panel to carry out credible, independent, impartial and effective investigations into the alleged corruption in the NDDC.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cA decisive action is needed by you and your government to stop the corruption in the NDDC, ensure that anyone suspected to be responsible is brought to justice, and to fully recover stolen, mismanaged or misappropriated public funds.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cEnsuring an independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigation into the corruption allegations in the NDDC would be entirely consistent with the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended), the NDDC Act, and Nigeria\u2019s international obligations, including under the UN Convention against Corruption to which the country is a state party.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cSection 15 subsection (5) of the Constitution requires your government to abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power, including corruption allegations in the NDDC. Similarly, the UN Convention against Corruption requires your government to ensure effective investigation and prosecution of allegations of corruption.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cSpecifically, article 26 of the convention requires your government to ensure \u2018effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions\u2019 including criminal and non-criminal sanctions, in cases of grand corruption. Article 26 complements the more general requirement of article 30, paragraph 1, that sanctions must take into account the gravity of the corruption allegations.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cYour government should send a strong message of intolerance for grave corruption in the NDDC, and show that you are willing and able to enforce important constitutional, statutory and international principles and obligations.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cSERAP also urges you to instruct the police authorities and security agencies to immediately end the harassment and intimidation of Ms Joy Nunieh, former Acting Managing Director of NDDC, or any other witnesses and whistle-blowers. Suspected perpetrators will escape justice if witnesses and whistle-blowers\u00a0are intimidated, harassed or threatened. \u201c<br \/>\n\u201cEffective investigation and prosecution will not be achieved if such crucial participants in the investigation are not sufficiently protected to perform their roles unimpeded. Stopping the harassment and intimidation would also ensure that innocent people are not wrongfully punished and that suspected perpetrators would not subvert the course of justice and escape sanctions.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cWe request that you take the recommended action within 14 days of the receipt and\/or publication of this letter, failing which SERAP will institute legal proceedings to compel your government to act in the public interest.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cThese allegations and the apparent attempts to weaken the independence, work and freedom of action of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) including alleged deliberate targeting of some directors of the agency have undermined the public\u2019s confidence in the government\u2019s oft-repeated commitment to fight corruption.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cAccording to reports, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation have indicted the NDDC of illegally spending 81.5 billion between January and July 2020. Further, the Bureau of Public Procurement has also reportedly stated that it did not issue \u2018Certificates of No Objection\u2019 to the NDDC for the procurements made by the commission with the money.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cThe breakdown of the N81.5 billion reportedly include: community relations, N1.3bn; condolences, N122.9m; consultancy, N83m; COVID-19, N3.14bn; duty tour allowances, N486m; imprest, N790.9m; Lassa fever, N1.956bn; Legal services, N900m; maintenance, N220m; and oversea travels, N85.6m.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cOthers are: project public communication, N1.121bn; security, N744m; staffing related payments, N8.8bn; and stakeholders\u2019 engagement (Feb 18 \u2013 May 31, 2020), N248m. A senator also allegedly used 11 companies as fronts to secure for himself N3.6 billion contract in September 2016. The current managing director of the NDDC also reportedly said that the commission spent N1.5 billion for staff as \u2018COVID-19 relief funds\u2019.\u201d<br \/>\nBy <strong>serap-Nigeria.org<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>N81.5bn: SERAP writes Buhari, seeks presidential panel to probe \u2018corruption in NDDC\u2019 Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari urging him to \u201cuse his leadership position to urgently set up a presidential investigative panel to probe grave corruption allegations in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[22,112,351],"class_list":["post-27399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-akpabio","tag-nddc","tag-serap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}