EFCC, ICPC’s Indicted NDDC Directors, Others Send On Compulsory ‘Leave’ Go Into Hiding

Indications have emerged that some staffers of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, placed on mandatory leave may never return to the commission after the on-going forensic audit of the agency.

BIGPEN gathered that already there is anxiety and apprehension at the headquarters of the NDDC over the compulsory leave placement of some of the staff who are mainly Head of Departments and non executive directors.

Sources said that some of those asked to go on leave have gone into hiding stemmed from plot of possible arrest by security agents.

NDDC’s Director, Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, had said that three categories of staff were affected by the directives which including payment of full benefits, pending the conclusion and outcome of the audit of the Federal Government’s interventionist agency from 2000 to 2019.

According to Odili, the NDDC Interim Management Committee, IMC, has approved the recommendations of the Lead Consultant on the Forensic Audit exercise, to wit mandatory leave for:

1. Those indicted by security agencies like the Police, ICPC and the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for acts of impropriety

2. Those whose acts are the subject of investigations by the forensic auditors.

3. Those who held key and sensitive positions in the commission during the period covered by the forensic audit and whose continued presence in the Commission will interfere, impair, undermine or compromise the objective forensic auditing of the affairs of the commission.

The mandatory leave takes immediate effect and the affected staff have already been notified, the agency said in a statement.