Senate Committee Set To Investigate Onochie, NDDC MD Over N1.4tr Corruption

By Sola Omoniyi Lagos

The Nigeria Senate Committee led by Senator Yusuf Yusuf has directed the chairman of the board of Niger Delta Development Commission ( NDDC ) Lauretta Onochie and the Managing Director of the NDDC, Samuel Ogbuku to appear before the Senate Committee on Monday, May 22, 2023, over corruption allegations.

According to the report, Onochie and Ogbuku are to appear before the Senate Committee to answer questions looming around them on unauthorized spending made by NDDC between 2021 and 2022.

Following the corruption allegation, the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Samuel Ogbuku, and the Chairman of the board of the agency, Lauretta Onochie were at war with each other for being corrupt.

During an investigation by the Senate Committee on how N1.4 trillion disappeared between the years 2021 – 2022 without National Assembly approval, Onochie and Ogbuku tackled each other.

Ogbuku stated that Onochie is overpassing her boundaries by desperately seeking to be a signatory to NDDC’s accounts.

For Onochie to be the signatory to NDDC’s accounts, it was alleged that she had written a letter to the Accountant General of the Federation.

Reacting to the allegation by Ogbuku, Onochie maintained that the decision for her to be a signatory to the accounts was taken by the board during a meeting.

Onochie stated that the Managing Director of NDDC, Ogbuku and the entire management is running the Commission in breach of financial regulations.

It was reported that the Commission currently running a total of 367 accounts against the dictates of the Treasury Single Accounts policy of the Federal Government.

However, Ogbuku denied the existence of 367 accounts in the agency but only operates four.

Onochie told the Senate Committee that part of the abuse of financial regulations displayed by the Ogbuku-led management was the increase of the monthly impress for the Managing Director from N4 billion to N10 billion.

However, the Senate Committee asserted that the original reason for the investigation was how unauthorized spending was made in the Commission between 2021-2022.