The House of Representatives has mandated the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to put on hold, the release of N15 billion counterpart funding requested by the federal government, pending the approval of the Commission’s budget by the House.
This resolution followed the adoption of urgent public notice motion moved by Uyime Idem (PDP, Akwa Ibom) at plenary on Thursday.
Moving the motion, Idem said the Ministry of Niger Delta was inaugurated and commissioned by the presidency to attend to intervention and humanitarian needs of the Niger Delta region of the country and promote the physical development of the Niger Delta region.
He noted that since its inauguration, the Ministry of Niger Delta has executed fundamental and important humanitarian intervention projects across the region.
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The lawmaker stated that: “part of the fund available for use by NDDC is money recovered on its behalf by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and given to the Commission, to ease the implementation and its financial obligations.
“The Federal government sent a special request mandating the Ministry of Niger Delta to jointly finance an intervention and humanitarian programme of sums running into several Billions of naira using the money recovered by the EFCC without budgetary provision.”
Idem disclosed that the NDDC budget estimates for 2021, 2022 and 2023 are before the House for legislative approval.
He expressed worry that such request for intervention and humanitarian proposals by the federal government without requisite financial appropriation and approval by the House was illegal and a breach of the Appropriation Act.
Adopting the motion, the House mandated the committee on NDDC to scrutinise such requests made by the federal government and report back to the house within two weeks.
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