By Ismail Auwal
President Muhammad Buhari has approved the removal of Professor Kemebradikumo Daniel Pondei, the acting managing director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Mr. Pondei’s removal was announced in a statement released by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adsina on Saturday night. He was replaced by Mr Effiong Okon Akwa, a Chartered Accountant and Acting Executive Director Finance and Administration at NDDC.
The statement said, “The development became necessary as a result of plethora of litigation and a restraining order issued recently against the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC by a Federal High Court in Abuja.”
Mr. Pondei, a professor of Medical Microbiology and former chairman of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), was at the centre of NDDC probe on allegations of corruption and misappropriation between October 2019 and May 2020 by Nigeria’s national assembly. The House of Representatives invited Mr. Pondei July 2020 to appear before a panel. The then acting DG NDDC, collapsed in a dramatic fashion.
