By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio,has 48 hours to publish names of lawmakers doing contract for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) or face the wrath of the House of Representatives.
This threat was issued to Akpabio by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabimila at Tuesday, July 21 plenary.
He told Akpabio to publish the names of the companies that were executing contracts for the NDDC, the amounts the contracts were awarded, the location of the projects and every other detail of payments.
Gbajabimila warmed Akpabio that failure to publish the details of the contracts awarded to the lawmakers would attract the full weight of the law.
Akpabio had told the probe panel of the House Committee on Niger Delta Affairs that the majority of contractors for the NDDC were the same lawmakers investigating the commission.
Once Akpabio broached the subject, the chairman of the committee repeatedly tried to shut Akpabio by shouting its okay severally.
The embarrassing episode led to a barrage of Twitter chatter by many Nigerians who think that all the lawmakers were involved in contract racketeering.
Minority Leader, Representative Ndudi Elumelu (PDP-Delta), on the floor of the green chambers moved the motion that Akpabio should be asked to name the so-called contractors.
This is especially as Akpabio had mentioned that the contract racket was done covertly by committee chairmen.
Alluding to when he was a senator, he said he never knew that such a thing was going on until he became a minster of the Niger Delta.
Akpabio said during the House probe of how N40 billion was allegedly embezzled by the NDDC, that 60 per cent of contracts in the commission were awarded to lawmakers.
But Gbajabimila countered Akpabio at today’s plenary of the House of Representatives, alleging that he was playing one of the oldest games in the book by throwing a baseless accusation to cause distractions.
“This is my fifth time in the House and I have never benefited from any contract and it is so for many of us here,” he said.
He said that ahead of the probe, the Chairman of the Committee on NDDC, Rep. Olubumi Tunji-Ojo (APC-Ondo), was accused of collecting contracts without documents to back it up.
Gbajabimila recalled that Tunji-Ojo stepped aside as a result of the accusation, and when asked at the probe Akpabio denied knowledge of any of such contract awarded to the Chairman.
He warned that such practices would not be allowed to stand in the legislature.