The Interim Sole Administrator of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is to appear before the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, on Thursday, February 25, 2021.
Akwa had shunned previous summons of the investigative panel set up to look into allegations against him.
The NDDC sole administrator, according to a petition against him to the CCB, did not declare his assets during and after his time as the managing director of Akwa Loans and Savings Ltd, a finance company owned by the Akwa Ibom state government.
This contravenes some provisions of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.
“We traced some properties we think belong to Akwa. Let him come and clear the air. If he denies ownership of the assets then we’ll set the records straight,” Sebastian Gwimi, director, Intelligence and Monitoring, told our reporter while confirming Akwa’s summons.
Point-blank news, an online newspaper, in a publication claimed that Godswill Akpabio, minister of Niger Delta and Akwa’s mentor, had allegedly, “paid N100m to officials of the CCB to assist Akwa Effiong falsify documents.”
Joseph Ambakederimo, Lead Executive Director, Global Forum for Accountability and Transparency, in a statement made available to the media said, “the issue that has been making the rounds regarding the CCB and the interim sole administrator of the NDDC…has become a test case for the CCB.”
Ambakederimo found the alleged intervention of Godswill Akpabio troubling. “The minister could very well explain to Nigerians why he has to barge into a committee at the CCB headquarters sitting to deliberate on this very matter. This attitude of the minister can be equated to a mob kingpin on a prowl to free a caged loyal servant…”
According to Ambakederimo, the minister was trying to intimidate officials of the CCB.
Our text message to Effiong Akwa was not responded to as at the time of publishing this story.
