Senate rejects N1.4 trillion illegally spent by NDDC, orders probe  

 Adekunle Adesuji

The Senate on Tuesday rejected N1.4 trillion illegally spent by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), between 2021 and 2022.

It was learned that the Commission’s budgets for 2021 and 2022 were not approved by the Senate.

A breakdown of the NDDC Budget for 2021 revealed that  N485.7 Billion was spent while N928 .2 billion was incurred in 2022 by the Interventionist Agency for Niger Delta.

This is even as the upper chamber also stepped down consideration of the 2023 Budget estimate of N485.7 billion for NDDC.

Meanwhile, the Senate has set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate unauthorized spending by the Interim management within two years.

The resolution of the lawmakers was a sequel to the concerns raised after the report of the Senate committee on NDDC was presented on the floor of the thSenatete by the committee vice chairman Senator Amos Bulus for consideration.

The report generated arguments among lawmakers who argued that an agency cannot spend monies not approved and submit a Budget for approval after spending.

According to Senator Seriake Dickson, the  2023 budget is not the product of the duly inaugurated board and management of the NDDC

Senator Olamilekan in his submission also raised the observation that the agency has started spending the 2023 budget yet to be approved by the National Assembly which is a clear violation of the constitutional provision.

He added that aside from violation of the constitution, the document can not go further lamenting what the document submitted to the committee contained was only debit and credit of various departments of the commission.

Also kicking against the budget, Senator Adamu Ailero told his colleagues that there is no need for us to consider the budget because the monies have already been spent adding that NDDC only brought the budget for us to formalize it and the Senate will not formalize illegality.

He explained it is unconstitutional to approve to already. spent budget.

Senator Ailero, therefore, moved a motion for the Senate to investigate the NDDC over spending without authorization of the National Assembly and it was seconded by Senator Adeola Olamilekan.

Members of the ad-hoc committee were Yusuf Yusuf (Chairman), Seriake Dickson, Abdullahi Yahaya, Seidu Alkali, Sodique Suleiman, Uche Ekwunife and Olubunmi Adetunmibi.

The Senate gave the ad-hoc committee one week to submit the report.

Senator Barinada Mpigi had claimed that Senator Dickson was part of the committee when the NDDC board appeared before the committee and he did not raise any objection to the issue.

But, the former of Bayelsa state refuted that he didn’t sign the NDDC budget document presented to the Senate for consideration.

He said that the budget is not the product of the board and the Management of NDDC that was approved by the National Assembly demanding that the Senate should step down the budget