The Niger Delta Development Commission on Wednesday faulted the Auditor General of the Federation’s report, which claimed that N183.7 billion could not be accounted for by the commission.
The AGF, Mr. Samuel Ukura, had after submitting three special reports to the National Assembly last week, told journalists in Abuja that N183.7 billion could not be accounted for between 2008 to 2012 audit years.
But the Executive Director, Finance and Administration in NDDC, Dr. Henry Ogiri said the report by the AGF was premature and did not follow the ethical standards of accounting profession.
He questioned the timing of the release of the report and its motive, adding that the AGF was only playing to the anti-corruption tune of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ogiri, who spoke on Focus Nigeria, a weekly programme on African Independent Television (AIT), however, said the commission will respond to the queries raised by the AGF’s report.
He pointed out that it would only be appropriate for the commission to respond to the full report, which contained 307 pages, and not just a page that was forwarded to the office of the Managing Director of the commission.
The finance director added that the commission was addressing the queries raised in the report received three months ago, many of which he insisted, were unfounded.
Ogiri stated, “You can’t respond to a query based on just a single sheet document. They said they have sent it to the office of the MD; the MD now wrote back to ask for the full document because what we got was just a letter, saying we have sent you the report.
“Send the entire documents let’s see. They now forwarded the report. This was like three months ago. I believe you are with the number, I told you that it is a 307-page document, with numerous queries and we are doing justice to it.
“I have already communicated to them to give us a few more weeks and they will get a complete response to their queries. And at the end of the day, he will even regret that he has even sent this out to the public.
“I am not holding brief; I cannot justify all the issues he has raised but there are clean cases of misrepresentation, misinformation, ill intention to divert the minds of the public and portray the leadership of Dan Abia as a corrupt team.
“This is very sad for this country. We can’t fight corruption, we can’t even support the President’s anti-corruption drive with this. It is really unfortunate”.
Ogiri said the AGF’s report covered 2008 to 2012, which was before the inauguration of the current executive led by Mr. Dan Abia.
Dr Henry Ogiri you’re my role model and a chartered accountant, no amount of blackmail from APC will distract you,my leader bravo.