The Niger Delta Development Commission is being investigated by the Nigerian Senate for possible employment fraud (NDDC).
This occurred in the context of a petition to the Senate accusing the management and the recently-retired Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, of refusing to document seven individuals who had been properly appointed.
The seven job applicants said in the suit that they had issues with the interventionist agency since they are all from Ondo State even though they had been granted employment letters but were rejected after providing documents.
Senator Ayo Akinyelure, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, stated that the petition before his Committee accused the former Minister and immediate past Management of NDDC of purposefully denying job seekers opportunities to work in the Commission even after meeting all requirements.
He claimed that when Akpabio oversaw the NDDC, he was charged with nepotism and tribalism in the management of the organization’s affairs.
The petitioners further alleged that unnamed NDDC employees demanded a bribe of N2 million before they could be officially documented.
The current Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, Umana Okon Umana, was not included in the complaint because he had not yet been appointed, according to the Akinyelure-led Committee, and he was cleared of all charges in a separate petition accusing him of attempting to steal N480 billion in NDDC funds held at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
