The federal government yesterday dissolved the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) following the conclusion of the assignment of a presidential committee set up to look into the problems facing the commission and the subsequent submission of the report by the committee.
“We will do whatever it takes to sanitise the NDDC,” President Goodluck Jonathan assured members of the committee after formally receiving their report from the chairman, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
Oronsaye had earlier told Jonathan that the committee had undertaken its assignment expeditiously and with proper diligence, adding that it was very mindful of the administration’s determination to take genuine development to the Niger Delta and all other parts of Nigeria.
He told the president that the committee had visited the NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt and interacted with its management, staff and stakeholders. According to him, the committee also received a memorandum from the Presidential Monitoring Committee on the NDDC which substantially corroborated its own findings.
Oronsaye described the NDDC as “acutely crisis-ridden”, noting that, for this reason, the committee has recommended “immediate intervention” to reverse the decay in the commission”.
The Presidential Committee recommended the dissolution of the NDDC board and the removal of its managing director, Mr. Chibuzor Ugwoha, and two executive directors over illegal $80million transactions.
It observed with grave concern that the relationship between the managing director and the board headed by Air Vice Mashal Larry Koinyan was beyond amicable resolution.
The committee also said it discovered that the managing director acted ultra vires when he opened a new account with First Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Kingdom, without seeking approval from the board.
It went on to say that the commission lost N1billion in the moribund Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria ,and observed further that the MD ignored the disapproval of the board on the issue of the account and transferred $37million from the commission’s account in Union Bank, United Kingdom, into the new account.
Also, an additional sum of $40million was transferred from the commission’s offshore account in Union Bank, UK, to two commercial banks in Nigeria. It was also gathered that $20million each was deposited in UBA and UBN Nigeria in August 2009.
The committee also faulted the pattern for budgeting in the commission, which it said could be exploited to violate standard procedure for contract award.
A statement signed by the secretary to the government of the federation(SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, said that President Goodluck Jonathan, after due consideration of the report, approved the dissolution of the board of the commission with effect from yesterday, adding that a new board for the commission would be reconstituted soon.
It further added that the managing director and other executive members are to hand over all items belonging to the commission in their custody to the director of administration and human resources, Mrs Osato Areyenka.