Forensic audit: Centre seeks protection for NDDC boss

As a result of the ongoing forensic audit of the activities of the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has called for security to be beefed up around the commission’s boss.

In a letter addressed to the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) dated January 28 but made available to journalists on Wednesday, the centre said the need to beef up security around Dr. (Mrs.) Joi Nunieh, the acting Managing Director of the commission, has become more pressing.

The centre said this is because the forensic probe has made the MD a target for disgruntled element who may be found culpable during the probe.

Barrister Abiodun Sodiq Babalola, the Director of Strategic Communication of CESJET, said the centre observed that the rage trailing the inauguration of the Interim Management Committee sometime in October, 2019 by the Federal Government of Nigeria to run the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is taking an alarming dimension.

”We recall that the Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. (Mrs.) Joi Nunieh who doubles as Acting Managing Director of the Commission was meant to create an enabling environment for the forensic audit of the NDDC with a view to identifying and or exposing the massive corrupt practices perceived to have disrupted the original purpose of establishing the NDDC as an interventionist agency to alleviate the sufferings of the Niger Delta people.

”The forensic audit in the wisdom of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR who sanctioned it was meant to cover 18 (Eighteen) years of the operation of the Commission,” the letter read in part.