Akpabio names lawmakers who got NDDC contracts

Godswill Akpobio, minister of Niger Delta affairs, has named lawmakers who got contracts from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), THISDAY is reporting.

The newspaper said the names of the lawmakers were attached to the letter the minister sent to the house of representatives.

The former Akwa Ibom governor was responding to an ultimatum by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of representatives, who had given him 48 hours to name the lawmakers who got the contracts or face the “wrath of the house”.

While appearing before a house panel probing the alleged mismanagement of N81.5 billion by the interim management committee (IMC) of the commission, Akpabio had said federal lawmakers were the biggest beneficiaries of the contracts awarded by the commission.

When Gbajabiamila read Akpabio’s letter on the floor of the house on Thursday, he did not mention that there was a list of contract beneficiaries attached to the letter.

Peter Nwaoboshi, senate committee chairman on NDDC; Matthew Urhoghide, senate committee chairman on public accounts, and James Manager, senator representing Delta South, were reportedly listed as beneficiaries.

Sam Anyanwu, a former senator representing Imo east, and Nicholas Mutu, a lawmaker from Delta who chaired the house NDDC committee in the last assembly, were also named as beneficiaries.

Mutu currently chairs the house committee on gas resources.

While Nwaoboshi’s name was tied to 53 projects, Mutu was said to have got 74 contracts.

Urhoghide, Manager and Anyanwu were said to have got 31 contracts in total.

There were no costs attached to the contracts said to have been awarded to these legislators.