THE Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has reacted to what he called a defamatory article written by an online medium, titled: “How EFCC detained Godswill Akpabio for two hours after attempting to bribe Agency Chairman with $350,000.” He said the report “is false.”
The Minister according to a press statement signed Saturday Anietie Ekong, his Chief Press Secretary, said has no reason to offer bribe to the new Chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa and never did.
According to the statement, on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, Akpabio, through a telephone call, sought audience with the new Chairman of the EFCC to discuss the transfer of funds belonging to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in respect of the 3% statutory remittances from Oil and Gas Companies in the custody of the EFCC.
President Muhammadu Buhari had since December 2020 approved the transfer of monies earlier paid by International Oil Companies into the CBN/EFCC account now to be transferred to the CBN/NDDC account.
The Chairman, as contained in the statement, granted the request for 10.00am but due to other exigencies, the Minister requested for a change of time to 11.30am whereupon the Chairman amended the request to 12noon due to his busy schedule. The two Senior Officials met and had a robust discussion and the Honourable Minister received very intelligent and useful input from the EFCC Chairman, Abdulrashed Bawa on the ongoing forensic audit of the NDDC.
