The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio has revealed how international oil companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria owe the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) more than $4 billion.
The Senator stated this on Thursday at the weekly ministerial press briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the State House, Abuja, said satutorily the IOCs were required to provide 3% of their annual budgets to the commissions as their contribution to its funding, but none of the IOCs had paid so far.
His words: “All the international oil companies are owing their statutory contribution to NDDC running into over $4 billion for many years and efforts are ongoing to recoup the money”.
The Minister also said that the NDDC on its part was owing contractors about N3 trillion, noting however that not all contracts awarded with costs can be regarded as debt.
The Senator said that the emergency contracts of over N600 billion that was awarded to them had not been implemented and cannot therefore be regarded as NDDC debt.
