NDDC Yet To Respond To N183.7bn Indictment -A-G

Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike (left), in a handshake with General Overseer Royal House of Grace, Apostle Zilly Aggrey, during the 23rd Anniversary of the church in Port Harcourt.

The Auditor General of the Federation has reacted to the claims by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) denying and casting aspersions on the Special Periodic Checks recently submitted to the National Assembly.
The auditor-general, who reacted to the NDDC’s denial yesterday, in Abuja, said however, that he decided to make its bold statement public, based on the NDDC’s condemnation of the Special Periodic Checks in various media, saying that the action was a calculated attempt to demean the efficacy of the constitutional mandate carried out by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.
A statement from the commission, and signed by O.A. Ogunmosunle, affirmed that it took NDDC, 16 months to grant the office permission to commence the periodic checks beginning from 9th December, 2011, to 6th May, 2013.
Similarly, it took another 16 months and several reminders to the NDDC with effect from the 24th of April, 2014 to 12th August, 2015, before the final report was submitted to the National Assembly, Ogunmosunle said.
“It may, however, interest the reading public to know that at the time of this Press Release, the NDDC is yet to respond to the Special Periodic Checks.
“It is pertinent to state unequivocally that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation has a constitutional mandate to submit its reports to the National Assembly, and in doing so, due process are usually followed.
“It is, therefore, important to let the NDDC and the public know that the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation stands by the Special Periodic Checks on the NDDC and its contents,” the statement added.
The statement, however, advised any person or corporate organization that is not satisfied with the contents of the Special Report, to take advantage of the opportunity to defend itself before the Public Accounts Committees (PACs) of the National Assembly.