sophisticated medical equipment as part of its contributions to the
fight against the Corona Virus, COVID-19, pandemic.
Speaking during an audience with the leadership of the Niger Delta Youth
Council at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Port Harcourt, Prof Pondei explained
that the intervention of the NDDC in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
came in three parts; namely: supply of medical equipment, provision of
palliatives and public enlightenment.
He stated: “Before the COVID-19 lockdown, we had applied for approval
through the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs to the President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria for COVID-19 intervention. The major part of
it was medical equipment, then the second part was palliatives (food
items) the third part involved publicity.
“Approval was given by the Federal Executive Council, and the approval
letter asked us to inform the Federal Bureau of Public Procurement since
it was an emergency. It clearly stated in the letter to expeditiously do
that at the end of all this. We have distributed the medical equipment
to all the nine states in the Niger Delta region.
“The medical equipment included ventilators, mobile x-ray machines and
PCR machines which are the only things that have not been distributed
due to the fact that we are trying to work with the Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control, NCDC to increase the testing capacity in the Niger
Delta region.”
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer said that the NCDC was supposed to
calibrate and deploy the 54 PCR machines and mobile x-rays, which, he
said were not available in many hospitals in the region.
Pondei stated that the frequent changes of management were affecting the
performance of the NDDC, noting that on account of the changes, payment
to contractors was often delayed even when they have achieved agreed
milestones. “Frequent change of management cannot bring the kind of
development we are looking for in the Niger Delta,” he said.
The NDDC boss stated that the Interim Management Committee, IMC, had not
awarded any other contracts apart from the ones with Presidential
approval, explaining: “What we met was historical debts. The first
payments we made for contracts were the ones the National Assembly asked
us to pay. And most of these debts were historic debts. We have not done
any illegal payments. We have paid people who were owed.”
Pondei conceded that the National Assembly had the constitutional right
to investigate the operations of the NDDC. He, however, appealed to the
lawmakers to also extend their oversight function to helping the NDDC to
get the oil companies to meet their statutory obligations to the
Commission.
Addressing the issue of payments for the NDDC Permanent headquarters,
Pondei noted that the building was started by the Oil Minerals Producing
Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, and in 2010 the board of the NDDC
decided to terminate the contract. To make this possible, N500 million
was approved by the Federal Executive Council to buy off the previous
contractor.
He explained: “Somewhere along the line in 2016, the board of the
Commission under Nsima Ekere, awarded the contract to RODNAP. I can
assure you that we did not award any contract to RODNAP. We met them
working there, and payments were done even before we came.
“On the issue of the certificate of completion, the building is not
complete. We have only moved there to fast track the work because we
want that building commissioned. The President in his democracy day
speech said that the NDDC building will soon be commissioned and to me,
it is a charge to go and get that place ready for completion and
commissioning.”
Speaking earlier, the leader of the Niger Delta Youth Council, Mr.
Samuel Ebiesuwa, said that they needed clarifications on the allegations
being made against the NDDC in the mass media. He said: “We have met
members of the National Assembly and stakeholders in the Niger Delta, so
we deem it fit to hear from the NDDC. We see the resources of the Niger
Delta as our commonwealth and will not allow the NDDC to be used as a
conduit pipe to siphon money that belongs to the entire region.
“There is an allegation that a contract was awarded during the COVID-19
lockdown to Osmoserve Global Ltd on April 20, 2020, for the emergency
supply and delivery of medical equipment to the tune of N729,
203,137.50. We want to get NDDC’s response to this and other
allegations.”