Group Faults Invitation of NDDC Finance Director by EFCC

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

A Niger Delta group under the aegis of Niger Delta Peace and Development Advocates (NDPDA), has faulted the circumstance leading to the invitation of the Director of Finance in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Mr. Eno Ubi Out, over an allegation of diversion of N25 billion tax remittance covering a period of 15 years.

The youth advocacy body for good governance in the region queried why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had to wait for almost 21 years before they carried out such an important inquiry into the non-remittance of VAT by the NDDC.

In a statement jointly signed by the President of the group Comrade Kelvin Ebi Thomas and the Secretary Ambassador Taunu Jude, in Port Harcourt,  the group said as commendable as the effort of the financial crimes commission for the routine procedural investigation into tax compliance of the NDDC as raised by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the current Director of Finance, Mr. Otu, under investigation was not close to the cadre of a management staff during the period under review being 2001-2015 and could not have been involved in the alleged non remittance of taxes

The EFCC in a letter dated 10th, August 2022 and signed by Mr. Abdulkarim Chukkol, Director of Operation, had requested that the NDDC release the Director of Finance at the NDDC for an interview with instruction to come along with evidence of all the remittance to FIRS from 2001 to 2015.

NDPDA in the statement insisted that the EFCC should undertake a holistic investigation and invite those who held the position of Finance Director during the period under review, noting that  Otu only responded to the invitation as a procedural matter being the current occupant of the office of the Director of Finance.

 “The action of the financial crimes Commission is ostensibly orchestrated by persons seeking to be named in the proposed Board of NDDC which was recently promised by President Muhammadu Buhari,” the group said.

The group lamented that for the public to imply criminal liability on the part of the current director of finance in the peculiar case of VAT diversion as reported in the media is a distraction to the holistic implementation of the recommendation of the Forensic Audit report.

They, however, noted that the distorted report by the media as presenting Mr. Otu as culpable is most unfortunate as it may bring a hardworking public servant into disrepute for a misdeed he could not have been privy to.