Posted on Jan 07, 2020
Sunday Aborisade, Abuja The Senate Committee on the Niger Delta Affairs and the House of Representatives Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission have expressed their preparedness to submit the report of the 2019 budget of the agency as soon as the National Assembly resumes plenary on January 28. Investigations by our correspondent at both chambers of the federal parliament revealed that the interim management committee of the NDDC and the directors of the commission have defended the budget, separately before the two panels. Findings revealed that based on the position of the Senate not to recognise the interim management team, the Niger Delta Committee of the red chamber engaged the directors of the agency during the budget defence sessions. However, findings revealed that the NDDC committee in the House of Representatives embarked on a robust engagement with the interim management committee of the agency during the budget defence. The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, confirmed to our correspondent on Monday that his committee would submit its report on the agency’s 2019 budget as soon as the National Assembly resumes plenary at the end of the month. Tunji-Ojo said his committee would start work on the 2020 budget of the commission as soon as that of the 2019 had been considered and passed by the House of Representatives at plenary. He said, “We are still working on the NDDC 2019 budget at the level of the House. By the grace of God, our committee hopes to lay the report on the budget of the commission when we resume plenary on January 28. “The House will have to pass the 2019 budget of the commission at plenary before we can start work on the 2020 budget. All other things being equal we will lay that of 2019, when we resume plenary. We are still on break till January 28. “The interim management team has been interacting with us and we will continue the interactions when we start work on the 2020 budget as soon as we pass the 2019 budget.” Several attempts to speak with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, to know the status of the NDDC budgets in the possession of his panel failed on Monday. Nwaoboshi did not respond to the calls made to his phone while he had yet to reply the text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report. A member of the Senate panel, who said he was not authorised to speak with our correspondent on the issue, explained on condition of anonymity that the panel would submit its report on the 2019 budget of the commission as soon as plenary resumes. He said, “We have completed work on the 2019 budget of the NDDC and we will present our report as soon as we resume plenary, later this month. “ Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH. Contact: theeditor@punchng.com