NDDC petitions IGP over contractors’ failure to supply N1.6bn furniture

The interim management committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has asked the police to probe contractors who failed to execute projects that were fully paid for.

In a letter dated July 29 and addressed to Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, Kemebradikumo Pondei, NDDC acting managing director, said contracts were paid for in 2017.

In the documents attached to the letter as seen by TheCable, seven companies were given the sum of N235,209,600 million for the supply of plastic desks and chairs.

This brings the sum total of the contracts to N1.6 billion.

The commission had asked Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the senate committee on NDDC, to refund N2.5 billion for the supply of plastic chairs and tables, but it is not clear if they are different contracts or the same as referred to in the letter to the IGP.

Nwaoboshi has since asked the commission to charge him to court if they have proof that he diverted the items.

In the letter, Pondei told the IGP that the items were diverted to a warehouse along Benin expressway, instead of depositing the chairs and tables in any of the commission’s warehouses.

“In or about 2017, the commission awarded contracts to certain companies for the production of desks and chairs for primary and secondary schools in the Niger Delta Region. The list of the companies is attached,” Pondei said.

“The contracts were awarded in furtherance of the commission’s education sector mandate [to improve] learning conditions in the Niger Delta region.

“Instead of supplying the chairs and desks to the commission’s warehouse in Port Harcourt or to any of the NDDC offices in the nine Niger Delta states, the contractors supplied them to a warehouse described as Akuede Akwis, Benin Expressway, Okpanam before Wichetech.

“The warehouse is located in Delta state and has no relationship with the commission. Waybills evidencing delivery of the desks and chairs at the said warehouse are hereby attached.

“Despite having been fully paid for the contracts, the contractors and the owner of the warehouse have refused to release the chairs and desks to the commission.

“The resultant effect is that the commission and the Niger Delta region have been deprived of the use of the desks and chairs and neither have the contractors refunded the monies paid on the items to the commission as money had and received.

“It is on the strength of the foregoing that the NDDC invites you to take a look at the fact culminating in this petition.”

In October, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a forensic audit into the commission’s finances from 2001 to 2019.