The Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has been accused of scheming to avoid a probe.
The accusation was levelled against the IMC by the Niger Delta Justice Forum (NDJF) which said that the sudden discovery that some NDDC staff had contracted coronavirus was suspicious.
In a statement released on Tuesday by its convener, Ime Idongesit, the NDJF said that the IMC must submit themselves to the ongoing probe by the National Assembly (NASS) into the alleged misappropriation of billions of Naira rocking the intervention agency.
Idongesit also claimed that the Director of Projects office does not have the numbers of staff being claimed.
He said; “The ED Projects and the late Executive Director of Finance and Administration (EDFA), Ibanga Bassey, who purportedly died of COVID-19 worked, ate, and stayed together most times throughout the lockdown.”
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The group wondered why none of the staff who worked closely with them had tested positive for coronavirus further accusing the IMC of distracting the public from scrutinizing its records.
“The late EDFA was the person slated as the prime witness in the probe of NDDC by the National Assembly. That was to be expected because he was in charge of all payments. He suddenly died as the probe was about to commence since the dead didn’t speak.
“Without any valid medical evidence, without the certainty of a test result and any pronouncement by the NCDC, the IMC hurriedly issued a press release stating that he died of complications from COVID-19.”
The NDJF thus advised the government not to fall for the tactics being used to avoid attending ongoing investigative hearings.
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