From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Senate Committee on Ethics , Privileges and Public Petitions, has issued a warrant of arrest on the Interim Administrator of Niger Delta Development Commission ( NDDC ), Effiong Okon Akwa, for refusing to appear before the Committee for explanation on N6.2 billion spent by the Commission on COVID-19 Palliatives.
The Committee had a fortnight ago issued an ultimatum to the NDDC boss to appear before it yesterday unfailingly having failed to honour three earlier invitations.
Angered by the absence of the NDDC’s boss at its sitting, the Committee led by Ayo Akinyelure (PDP Ondo Central) resolved that the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, would be officially contacted by the Senate to bring the NNDC boss before the committee unfailingly on March 9.
The Commission had under the recently sacked Professor Daniel Pondei led Interim Management Committee (IMC) claimed to have spent N6.25 billion on Palliatives against COVID-19 last year across the nine oil producing states.
But chairman of the agency’s COVID-19 Palliative Distribution Committee, Ambassador Sobomabo Jackrich, in a petition forwarded to the committee, said not a dime was spent for such purpose by the then IMC.