From court filings cited by *The Punch*, a court has reportedly given the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) a 90‑day window to publish its long-awaited forensic audit report.
The decision renews public attention on how intervention funds have been spent in the Niger Delta and whether alleged project inflation, abandoned contracts, and procurement lapses will be formally documented.
If the report is released in full, it could influence prosecutions, contract reviews, and a broader reset of how the NDDC plans and executes projects.
Other reporting on the same development includes:
– Channels TV: “Civil society groups say publication is essential for accountability in the Niger Delta.”
– Premium Times: “Transparency advocates argue the audit should be released without redactions.”
Analysis/Echotitbits take: Publication is only step one—action is step two. Watch whether the report triggers recoveries, blacklisting, and a credible reform plan, or whether it becomes another document that sparks headlines without consequences.
Source: The Punch — December 17, 2025 (https://punchng.com/court-gives-nddc-90-days-to-publish-forensic-audit-report/)
According to The Punch, SERAP says it may sue the Attorney-General of the Federation over issues linked to a reported ₦6tn judgment involving the NDDC and broader accountability concerns.
The group’s stance, as reported, focuses on transparency demands and what it argues should be the public’s right to clarity on large judgment-related liabilities.
Such legal threats can trigger official responses, document releases, or court filings that shed more light on how liabilities are incurred and handled.
Analysis/Echotitbits take: If litigation proceeds, the most important developments will be court filings and verified documents—not social media summaries. Watch for statements from the AGF’s office, NDDC, and any court timetable that could force disclosures.
WorldStage https://www.worldstagenews.com/serap-threatens-contempt-to-sue-agf-fagbemi-over-failure-to-enforce-judgment-on-alleged-n6tn-nddc-scandal/ December 14, 2025
The Honourable Minister, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, CON, says that the ministry is committed to harmonizing the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan with the Niger Delta Action Plan to produce one regional road map for development in Nigeria’s oil-rich region.
Akpabio, who spoke at the new Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Permanent Headquarters at the Eastern By-Pass, Port Harcourt as part of the activities during his working visit to the Niger Delta, harped on the need for collaboration and synergy in the effort to develop the Niger Delta region.
The visiting team was received by the NDDC Acting Managing Director, Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei, in company of the Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Mr. Effiong Akwa, a member of the Interim Management Committee, IMC, Mrs Caroline Nagbo and directors of the Commission.
The Minister regretted that the NDDC had not lived up to expectations, noting that “Whether we like it or not, this child (NDDC) has not grown well in 19 years. It could have done better. Perhaps, we lost track of the developmental plan of the Niger Delta region.”
He, however, congratulated the NDDC Acting Managing Director and members of the IMC for doing a good job in delivering the new office complex, which he described as “a good story for the NDDC.”
“The most thrilling thing for me is that change has come to the NDDC. I must commend the management and staff of the NDDC for making this possible. Despite the criticisms and distractions, some positive change has taken place in the Commission and I like to see progress because I am a development-oriented politician.”Akpabio added.
While still speaking, the Minister also noted that Prof Pondei should be proud to be the first Chief Executive Officer of the NDDC to move into a new edifice. “The feat could not have been achieved without the cooperation of members of the IMC and the Ministry of the Niger Delta Affairs.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Babayo Ardo, in his remarks, said the site inspection embarked by the Minister is to appraise the progress of work done and also to give appropriate attention to areas where the Ministry with other development partners would intervene to ensure that the project is completed for the benefit of the people in the region.
Dr. Ardo said that, NDDC is being repositioned and refocused on the mandate of the Ministry with the Support of President Muhammadu Buhari for effective service delivery. Therefore, it is important to synergise the master plan and actions with all development partners.
Speaking earlier, the NDDC Chief Executive Officer said that the new headquarters would add value to the work of the NDDC towards meeting its mandate of facilitating the rapid development of the Niger Delta region.
In his own remarks, the NDDC Director of Project Monitoring and Supervision, Engr. Tonye George, said that he felt fulfilled that the project, which started in 1993 during the days of the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, was virtually completed.
He said that the IMC was able to push the project to the level where the contractor was now putting finishing touches because of the active support of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, noting: “As we speak, members of the IMC now work from the new headquarters building.”
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, over the decision by the All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership of the House to shut down the sitting of various committees carrying out investigation on the executive arm of government.
The opposition party alleged that the action was a deliberate design to cover the stench of corruption oozing out of the APC administration.
“If the Honoruable Speaker is inclined towards allowing the covering of corruption, against the purpose for which he was elected to lead the House, then, he should take a bow and step aside,” PDP said.
The party charged the Speaker to “stop circumventing the statutory duties of the House of Representative and placing of wedges in the way of the fight against corruption by the legislature.”
PDP also described “the shutdown order by the APC leadership of the House of Representatives as a clear example of corruption fighting back from within the government circle, which must be condemned by all Nigerians.”
The party allegedly noted that “such incursion into the activities of the committees is to quench the fight against corruption as well as to frustrate whistle blowers just because APC has become an ocean of corruption where the members are swimming.”
“It is clear that the shutdown directive is targeted at frustrating revelations from ongoing investigations on the $500 million foreign loan from China, particularly as it relates to the mortgaging of our nation’s sovereignty to China.
“This is in addition to the investigations into the humongous corruption in government agencies including the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) the N300 billion unremitted revenue to the federation account as well as allegations of corruption in government earnings and the expenditure in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA’s) under the APC.
“It is therefore unfortunate that under the Gbajabiamila-led leadership, the basic responsibility of the House of Representatives, which is its oversight on the executive, has just been maimed through a forced holiday on the members of the respective committees and their chairmen.
“It is equally distressing that the APC leadership of the House of Representatives is breaching parliamentary rules, practices and procedures to shield APC leaders and their cronies who have been fleecing our nation.
“Our party therefore holds that any parliament that deliberately frustrates its statutory responsibility to call the activities of the executive to question has lost the essence of its own existence. The leadership that led it into such constitutional suicide must be held culpable.
“Indeed, never in our parliamentary history has committee activities been suspended or shut down on the ground of holiday or suspension of plenary.
“For us in the PDP, it is shocking that the APC leadership of the House of Representatives could by any consideration shut down, its legislative investigation, which is exclusively vested on it under sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), on the guise of being on break.
“Such an action is calamitous to our democracy,” said PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.
The party, however, commended the members of its caucus and other minorities in the National Assembly for standing against corruption and striving to ensure that the APC does not sell Nigerians into slavery with its reckless foreign borrowings.
“Our party urges the lawmakers not to be deterred but continue in their assignments, as they are only answerable to the Nigerian people,” the statement added.
PDP therefore charged the Gbajabiamila-led APC leadership of the House of Representatives to immediately reverse itself as Nigerians expect nothing but seamless investigations without unnecessary interferences and incursions.
President Muhammadu Buhari has finally come to the aid of stranded scholarship students of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) studying abroad, ordering the payment of their outstanding fees and stipends with immediate effect.
The commission’s Interim Management Committee (IMC) has also said it stood by the list of NDDC contracts handled by members of the National Assembly, which was submitted by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio, at the National Assembly in July.
It would be recalled that the Chairman of the Nigerians in Diapora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, recently wrote Akpabio to see to the payment of the fees, after the students protested over non-payment of their fees by NDDC.
Confirming the latest development on Tuesday, NDDC Director, Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, in a statement, said the President has directed Akpabio to pay the students.
Odili assured that the students would be paid by the end of the week, explaining that the delay was caused by the sudden death of NDDC then Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Ibanga Etang, in May.
“Under the commission’s finance protocol, only the Executive Director (Finance) and the Executive Director (Projects) can sign for the release of funds from the commission’s domiciliary accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“With the death of Chief Etang, the remittance has to await the appointment of a new EDFA. Senator Akpabio, the Honourable Minister, said President Buhari who has been briefed on the protest by students at the Nigerian High Commission in London, has ordered that all stops be pulled to pay the students by the end of this week. We expect a new EDFA to be appointed this week. As soon as that is done, they would all be paid,” the statement explained.
On the list of NDDC contracts handled by members of the National Assembly, Odili noted that the list submitted by Akpabio was not compiled by the minister but came from the files in the commission.
He said the list submitted to the National Assembly was compiled by the then management of the commission in 2018, adding that there was another set of list for emergency project contracts awarded in 2017 and 2019 but were not submitted to the National Assembly.
According to him, “The Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the commission stands by the list, which came from files already in the possession of the forensic auditors.
“It is not an Akpabio list but the NDDC’s list. The list is part of the volume of 8,000 documents already handed over to the forensic auditors.”
He said prominent indigenes of the Niger Delta whose names were on the list should not panic as the commission discovered that people used their names to secure contracts, adding that the ongoing forensic audit would unearth persons behind the contracts.
He said the intention of the list was to expose committee chairmen in the National Assembly who used fronts to collect contracts from the commission, some of which were never executed.
Odili added that the list did not include a case of 250 contracts, which were signed for and collected in one day by one person for members of the National Assembly.
He said the forensic audit exercise was on course and the commission positioned 185 media support specialists to identify the sites of every project captured in its books for verification by the forensic auditors.
Odili advised members of the public to discountenance the “avalanche of falsehood being orchestrated by mischief makers,” regretting that “more insinuations and accusations may be thrown into the public space by those opposed to IMC.”
Meanwhile, NDDC had extended an invitation to Buhari to inaugurate a 29-kilometre Ogbia-Nembe Road in Bayelsa State.
This was disclosed by NDDC Director of Corporate Affairs, noting that the road was built in conjunction with Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) to create a land link to the ancient city of Nembe for the first time.
Odili explained that the road project, which cost N24 billion, cutting through swampy terrain to connect 14 other communities, needed 10 bridges and 99 culverts.
“To conquer the swampy terrain, the construction involved digging out four metres of clay soil and sand filling it to provide a base for the road. The road has cut the journey time to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, from three hours to one and a half hours.
“This project is not only a flagship intervention project in the Niger Delta region, it is also a model of development partnership between the commission and international oil companies in the region,” he said.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, allegedly rushed into the Port Harcourt residence of a former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Joy Nunieh, to rescue her from a purported house arrest following alleged police invasion of the house.
Nunieh was billed to testify before the House of Representatives committee on Niger Delta, who are probing public fund embezzlement in billions of Naira.
Acting Managing Director of Interim Management Committee (IMC) for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Kemebradikumo Pondei, and his team Thursday in Abuja walked out on the members of the House of Representatives Committee on NDDC.
This was coming as Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, allegedly rushed into the Port Harcourt residence of a former NDDC Managing Director, Joy Nunieh, to rescue her from a purported house arrest following alleged police invasion of the house.
Pondei and the team, while addressing the committee members, said they were not prepared to make any presentation before the lawmakers.
The Acting Managing Director raised objections that the Chairman of House Committee on NDDC, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, presiding over the investigative hearing, could not preside over a matter in which he’s an accused.
Members of the committee, including Benjamin Kali, Ben Ibakpa and Shehu Koko, told the Acting MD that since there was no document before them, he’s constitutionally bound to answer their queries.
While members were still making contribution on the issue, Pondei sought permission to leave and walked out before the committee could grant or reject his request.
Furious members of the Committee accused the Interim Management Committee of trying to frustrate legislative functions and ordered a warrant of arrest be issued against him.
The Committee also unanimously passed a vote of confidence on its Chairman.
Meanwhile, Wike was said to have arrived Nunieh’s house, which was surrounded by over 15 armed policemen in the early hours of Thursday.
The governor allegedly bulldozed his way into the building and took the embattled ex-NDDC managing director to the Government House in Port Harcourt.
Nunieh was supposed to be in Abuja on Thursday to testify before the ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives investigating alleged corruption in NDDC.
Idowu Sowunmi
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