Media attacks on us, orchestrated plot to get back at IMC – NDDC

The Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), says the renewed media attacks on the IMC is part of the orchestrated plot by those mentioned in the emergency contract sleaze to get back at the IMC for daring to name and shame those who have held the Commission and the region hostage for years.

The IMC in a statement signed by Edgar Raymond Ebigoni SA on Media to the Acting MD of the NDDC, Prof. Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, expressed shock that “the Ad-Hoc committee chose to believe the naysayers who claimed that the NDDC headquarters was not nearing completion; a claim that the IMC denied.

Ebigoni in the statement said the Senate Ad-Hoc, in a bid to glorify the head of the immediate past IMC, credited the Forensic Audit to her, even when she testified negatively to the existence of the Forensic Audit.

He said neither the Ag. MD Prof Pondei nor any member of the IMC has sought or received any bribe or inducement or such for performing their duties.

The statement reads in part:  “The IMC has been undertaking a painstaking evaluation of projects before approving any historical debt payment, no matter the level of documentary progress already recorded. Previous project valuations have been slashed and actual value of work done determined.

“Most emergency contractors are therefore no longer getting the humongous figures they had been promised by their co-conspirators within the Commission. The reduced payment is a saving for the Commission and the Niger Delta, not a payment for the persons in the IMC or the Commission.

“The IMC intends to steer the Commission away from questionable, low-impact projects, with quick-win projects not being excluded),   into programmes of regional scale with emphasis on areas already identified in the Niger Delta Action Plan. The programmes will cascade into related projects that will mesh smoothly into a seamless whole on completion.

“The IMC is looking at the environmental hazards of flooding, inter region transportation including rail transportation, port development, health, and education and power sectors. The new NDDC will embark on programmes beyond individual state governments and intensify collaboration with other state players in the region.

“The IMC is irrevocably focused on delivering on its mandate to the entire people of the Niger Delta and not a select few from within and outside it. It enjoins all people of goodwill to partner with it to achieve this laudable objective.”

“The Forensic Audit will actually unravel the issue of over invoicing and contract inflation, among other things. It will follow the money trail and expose those who shared such monies with the contractors,” he added.