The House of Representatives has ordered an investigation into allegations of a missing N100 billion from the coffers of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) established in 2017 to reconstruct states affected by insurgency in the north-east.
Moving a motion for the probe of the agency, minority leader of the house, Ndudi Elumelu, said the N100 billion given to the commission by the federal government has “vanished” with nothing to show for it. Elumelu while moving the motion, accused Mohammed Goni Alkali, commission’s managing director, of awarding non-existent contracts.
He said “The N100 billion so far disbursed to the commission by the federal government is said to have vanished under a year without any visible impact on the refugees nor any infrastructural development credited to the name of the commission in the whole of the north-east. The corrupt practices include high handedness by the managing director, Mohammed Goni Alkali, over inflation of contracts, awards of non-existent contracts, massive contract splitting and flagrant disregard for the procurement laws in the award of contracts. There are allegations of how the minister of humanitarian affairs and disaster management, Sadiya Farouk, was said to have entered into an unholy deal with the managing director of the commission to illegally withdraw money for the purchase military vehicles without any recourse to the board. The act, which completely disregards the country’s procurement laws, must be seriously frowned at.”
The house adopted the motion after it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila. The motion was referred to the House committees on finance, procurement, and NEDC. The report on the probe is expected to be turned in after eight weeks.