NDDC audit: Contractors, banks are already making refunds — Akpabio

Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

Some of those indebted to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) are already making moves to redeem their obligations.

Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who disclosed this in an exclusive chat with The Nation in Abuja also said millions of funds, in both naira and hard currencies, had been disclosed by some banks he described as ‘culpable’ in the alleged fleecing of NDDC over the years.

The minister also disclosed that the preliminary steps in the forensic audit of the commission ordered months back by President Muhammadu Buhari had begun, adding that the names of the auditing firms that would carry out the exercise would soon be made public.

According to him, the auditing process may take as long as four months, noting that the corrupt system that broke the purpose of the commission down took almost two decades.

Read Also: Akpabio gives Buhari food for thought

He observed that the cleansing process of the commission by the administration would become one of President Buhari’s greatest legacies.

“I believe, from Mr. President’s perspective, when the decision is taken, the law will take its course. I believe some of them will be made to refund. As I speak now, some have come forward that they have money from the NDDC and that they did not, because of regime change, utilize the money.

“Some have come to say they were given billions to supply things that they could not supply for one reason or the other, that the moneys are stuck in the banks. We have also found some banks that are culpable because they also withheld money of the NDDC”, he said.

Speaking on culpability of some banks in the alleged rot at the commission, Akpabio said some banks, which had become jittery over the impending scrutiny of finances of the interventionist agency, had come forward to make disclosures on some funds with them.