, has been insisting on being the accounting officer of the commission against the provision of the Act establishing the commission, PREMIUM TIMES has gathered.
“Immediately after the inauguration of the NDDC board, she travelled the following day to Port Harcourt. The MD of NDDC was surprised to see her on the same flight to Port Harcourt. The source said Mrs Onochie, without Mr Ogbuku’s knowledge, immediately invited all the board members via text messages for a meeting in Port Harcourt.
“When she didn’t get a response, she wrote another mail to the presidency, this time she requested that the commission should be removed from the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, and taken back to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha,” she said. The board is now divided, with some members backing the chairperson, while others are against her, this newspaper learnt.Our reporter got in touch with an NDDC official who contacted the chairperson, on Friday, on behalf of PREMIUM TIMES, but she said she was “not open to the media at the moment”.
A source in the NDDC, however, told PREMIUM TIMES, last week, that Mrs Onochie was informed as well as invited to the summit but she declined the invitation and dismissed the event as a “jamboree”. “What we signed on 25 April is simply the opening phase that will determine how far we will go, but definitely showcases how interested the international partners are in tapping into the Niger Delta region,” Mr Abosede said, adding that the model is to provide alternative sources of funding for key projects and programmes of the commission.
The NDDC management said they would further evaluate the desilting jobs the contractor claimed to have done before any further payments on the projects, this newspaper learnt.