President Buhari removes Pondei, Acting MD, NDDC, appoints interim administrator

President Muhammadu Buhari has removed the acting Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Daniel Pondei. The President also approved an interim administrator for the commission, Effiong Okon Akwa.

This was disclosed by the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, via his Twitter handle on Saturday.

According to Adesina, Akwa is expected to assume leadership in NDDC till completion of the on-going forensic audit.

Adesina tweeted, “He is Mr Effiong Okon Akwa, the Ag. Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Commission, who is to assume headship till completion of the forensic audit.”

President Buhari approves interim administrator for the NDDC

He is Mr Effiong Okon Akwa, the Ag. Executive Director, Finance and Administration of the Commission, who is to assume headship till completion of the forensic audit.

— Femi Adesina (@FemAdesina) December 12, 2020

What you should know

• Last July, Nairametrics reported that the National Assembly leveled corruption allegation against the Interim Management Committee of NDDC, as the commission claimed that it spent N81.5 billion within 7 months (October 2019 to May 2020) as against media reports that the money was spent within 6 months (January 2020 to July 2020).
• The disclosure was made in a tweet post by the Niger Delta Development Commission on its official Twitter handle.
• The Commission, while dismissing the media report as false, claims that according to the information from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the N81.5 billion was actually spent by the 2 Interim Management Committees of the NDDC between October 29, 2019, and May 31, 2020