NDDC chair, MD fight dirty at Senate over alleged corruption

The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Samuel Ogbuku, and Chairman of the Board, Lauretta Onochie, fought dirty on Friday when they accused one another of being corrupt.

Ogbuku and Onochie engaged in sordid exchanges during an investigative hearing by the Senate Committee on unauthorised spending of the 2021 and 2022 budget of the agency without the National Assembly approval.

The managing director was represented at the session by the Executive Director in charge of Finance and Administration, Charles Airhiavere while Onochie appeared in person.

Airhiavere accused Onochie of overstepping her bounds by desperately seeking to be a signatory to NDDC’s accounts.

He alleged that Onochie even wrote a letter to the Accountant-General of the Federation seeking to be made a signatory to the agency’s accounts.

Onochie, however, said the decision for her to be a signatory to the accounts was taken by the board at one of its meetings, adding that it was not a personal decision.

She said the request for change of signatory was rejected because the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed the managing director to ensure that her confirmation was sought in every financial transaction.

“The CBN said I should be the confirming authority but they didn’t come back to me. That is why they have been operating the way they like,” Onochie said.

Onochie, however, accused the managing director and the entire management of running the commission in breach of financial regulations.