Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, on Thursday, stormed the residence of a former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joy Nunieh and freed her from police siege.
Daily Trust learned the governor arrived at her Amadi Flat, Port Harcourt residence and ordered the 15 armed policemen, who were making an attempt to arrest her, out of the way.
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He then proceeded to enter the house, and was seen driving her off in his convoy.
Our correspondent said Nunieh was ferreted by Wike to Government House, Port Harcourt.
A source informed our reporter that the former NDDC MD had put a call to governor Wike when she realised a siege had been laid on her residence.
The source told our reporter that the disappointed police officers had to make a retreat as they were not able to arrest the ex-NDDC MD.
Nunieh, early this week, had an altercation with the Minister of Niger Delta, Goodswill Akpabio over the issue of alleged fraud in the NDDC.
Nunieh had accused the Minister of sexual harassment an allegation the later has denied .
The former NDDC boss was to appear before the House of Representatives Adhoc committee on NDDC today 16 July, 2020.
Daily Trust gathered that Nunieh was preparing to fly to Abuja to honour the invitation when the police laid siege on her residence.
The Police have, however, denied any knowledge of the siege at her residence which begun as early as 4:30am.
Rift in NDDC
Nunieh, had accused Akpabio of orchestrating her removal from office, but the minister said she was being insubordinate.
Nunieh, a former Acting Managing Director of Interim Management Committee of the NDDC, served as NDDC acting MD between October 29, 2019 to February 28, 2020 before the committee was sacked.
She alleged on the side lines of the Senate investigative hearing probing NDDC’s misappropriation of N40 billion that Akpabio engineered her removal from office for failing to dance to his tunes regarding the spending of the Commission.
Nunieh said: “Nobody makes any payment in NDDC without Godswill Akpabio’s approval.
“When we first came, on the day of the inauguration, he said to me in the car, ‘Madam MD, if you don’t do what I say, the same pen with which I used to sign your paper is the same pen I’ll use to remove you.”
But reacting to Nunieh’s allegations, Akpabio said the former NDDC MD was removed because of insubordination and for skipping the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
“She was relieved of her appointment because of insubordination,” Akpabio said when he featured on AriseTV News Saturday night.
“My ministry, which supervises her, wrote several letters to her but she never responded to one,” he added.
The minister said he had received petitions from anti-corruption agency that Nunieh didn’t have the requisite qualifications to work as acting MD of a commission.
He said Nunieh was removed after the discovery that there was no record in the national headquarters of NYSC to prove her participation in the scheme.
“We have written to her to explain but she had not responded,” Akpabio added.
Meanwhile, the Rivers State Government said nothing must happen to Nunieh.
“We wish to state that while we are not interested in identifying with the present unfolding drama in the NDDC, we will not, however, fail to protect our daughter from actual harm or perceived danger,” Paul Nsirim, the state commissioner for information, had said.
Reps probe accounts
The House of Representatives Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is currently probing the activities of the commission over allegations of fraud.
The committee, on Wednesday, interrogated officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Auditor-General of the Federation over an alleged N82.5bn spent by the NNDC between January and May 2020.
The committee’s chairman, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo (APC, Ondo), said the documents submitted by both the CBN and the Auditor-General of the Federation showed that the total amount spent by the NDDC from January to May 2020 was N81.5 billion.
He said the commission claimed to have spent N1.3bn on community relations, N122.9m on condolences, N83m on consultancy and N3.14bn on COVID-19, N486m Duty Travel Allowance, N790.9m as imprest, N1.956bn on Lassa Fever, N900m on Legal Service, N220m on maintenance, N85.6m on foreign travels, N1.121bn on public projects communication, N744m on security, N8.8bn on staffing-related payment.
He said the NDDC also spent N248m on stakeholders’ engagement from February 18 to May 31, 2020.
The Auditor-General, Anthony Ayine and the representative of the Accountant-General, Sabo Mohammed, confirmed the N81.5bn transactions being investigated.
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