By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday arrested a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Nsima Ekere for alleged diversion of funds to the tune of N47 billion through registered contractors of the agency.
Information of his arrest and detention was disclosed by the Commission’s spokesperson Wilson Uwajaren eate on Wednesday.
His arrest is the latest scandal to have been linked to the NDDC after President Muhammadu Buhari ordered a forensic audit of the agency to check its operations from 2001 to 2019.
Lamenting the alleged financial misappropriation in the NDDC, Buhari had affirmed strongly that government will recover “every kobo” misappropriated.
Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio had revealed that up to 13, 000 laid abandoned across the region.
“The report of the audit committee showed that there are over 13,000 abandoned projects in the Niger Delta and even before the submission of the report some contractors have returned to site on their own and completed about 77 road projects,” the former Akwa Ibom governor said when he submitted the audit report to Buhari in September 2021.
Nsima, 56, was the agency’s Managing Director between 2016 and 2018.
