The acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Daniel Pondei slumped on Monday during interrogation by lawmakers probing alleged financial recklessness by the Commission.
Pondei, who had been grilled for about an hour was answering questions from the lawmakers when he slumped over his desk. He was promptly stablised and moved out of the session for medical emergency.
The development prompted the committee, which is in its fourth day of the public hearing, to adjourn for 30 minutes.
The House Committee on NDDC is investigating how the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC allegedly squandered N40 billion within three months.
The committee had on Friday summoned Pondei and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to appear before it today to answer questions on how budgetary allocations to the agency had been spent.
Testifying before the committee on Friday, the Commission’s immediate past acting managing director, Joi Nunieh who joined the panel via Zoom, had accused Akpabio of contract scams and other corrupt practices in Commission.
She also claimed that only about N8 billion was spent by the agency throughout her tenure.
Nunieh, was to appear before the Committee on Thursday, but was reportedly prevented from travelling to Abuja following alleged siege to her residence in Port Harcourt by armed policemen who acted on the directives of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
She was eventually rescued and moved to the Rivers State Government House by Governor Nyesom Wike.
Pondei, who appeared before the committee on Thursday with other management staff of the commission, had led a walk out on the lawmakers, after accusing the chairman of the committee, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, of corruption.
The Senate, had set up an adhoc committee presided by Senator Olubunmi Adetunbi (APC, Ekiti North) to investigate financial transactions carried out by the IMC on behalf of the commission within the period and present a report in four weeks.
The directive was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Thompson George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers East), titled: ‘Urgent Need to Investigate Alleged Financial Recklessness in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)’.
Sekibo had alleged that the IMC indulged in arbitrary sacking of the commission’s management staff.