Don’t drag me into NDDC contract scam, Ibori warns Akpabio

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Former Delta State Governor, James Ibori has told Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio not to drag him into contract scam at the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

Ibori said he was never a part of any contract from the NDDC and that he had never been a government contractor.

Ibori, in a statement issued by his Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, said he had to make the clarification for the records because friends and associates had inundated him with phone calls since Monday morning.

According to him, he is stating categorically that he never solicited for, or was awarded, or indeed executed, any contract with NDDC or any government agency, at any time, for that matter.

The statement further said; “And in all he has been through in and out of public office, he has never been accused of being a government contractor, let alone a failed one hence he did not want to dignify the allegation with a response because it is ridiculous.

“So, Ibori is advising Akpabio, his brother, friend and member of the former Governors Forum, to please calm down and focus on the task at hand.”

The statement quoted Ibori as saying that “the NDDC we have today is a product of his personal sacrifice as well as those of his Niger Delta colleagues (1999 -2007) who rose to the occasion to override the veto of President Olusegun Obasanjo who refused to assent to the NDDC Bill at the time.

“If not for the exemplary courage some of us exhibited, there would have not been an NDDC to bicker about today.”

The former governor said watching the level the NDDC had degenerated to is a tragedy.

“We owe it a duty to the people of the Niger Delta to make NDDC work to ameliorate the sufferings of the people of the region and to realise the dream for which we fought for it to be set up. So, let everybody involved in the NDDC do their duties to the good people of the region.”