I was not arrested by ICPC -NDDC MD

Posted by admin Niger Delta Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC), Mr. Chibuzor Ugwuoha has debunked reports that he was arrested and detained by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Reacting to a newspaper publication (not Daily Sun), Mr. Ugwuoha said that at no time was he detained by the anti-corruption outfit. The NDDC boss who spoke in Port Harcourt through his Special Assistant (Media), Mr. Abraham Ogbodo, said he merely honoured an invitation by the ICPC and left the same day. In the words of Mr. Ogbodo, “He (Ugwuoha) was invited like the ICPC can invite anybody. He was never arrested and detained. None of that took place”.

He recalled that the Managing Director had travelled to Lagos for a Conference on Corporate Social responsibility after which he flew to Abuja for an official engagement and later called at the ICPC on the latter’s invitation. Mr. Ogbodo said the invitation had to do with the alleged unauthorized transfer of 20 million US Dollars from the Union Bank to the First Bank, both in the United Kingdom, an action that the NDDC boss had exhaustively defended.

He reminded those behind the latest invitation that Mr. Ugwuoha had explained that the transfer was prompted by the emerging insolvency of some commercial banks including the Union Bank as publicly announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the time. Besides, he pointed out that the transfer was from the Union Bank in United Kingdom to the First Bank also in the UK and not from Nigeria to a foreign account as being peddled in some quarters, adding that the money has not been withdrawn.

“It was not a case of money moved from Nigeria to the UK. The two banks are in UK, one is Union Bank and the other is First Bank. As we talk, that account is not interest-yielding and nothing has being withdrawn”.
Mr. Ogbodo said the NDDC Managing Director who top-ranking outfits like Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) acknowledged early this month in a letter for his, “excellent efforts in capacity building, empowerment and poverty reduction” was committed to meaningful development of the Niger Delta region.

-Sunwp_posts