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The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, has challenged the National Assembly over probe of the Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

The legislature is currently investigating the commission’s financial activities.

The former Akwa Ibom State Governor, on Thursday, told the nation’s lawmakers that the probe should cover all the years of the commission’s existence.

He spoke when members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) visited him in Abuja.

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Akpabio urged Nigerians to “ask questions”.

“How come it is only now that even our parliament has found it necessary to conduct a selective probe of NDDC? Instead of beginning from the inception, year 2001, they are now doing five months probe out of almost 20 years of existence. Why?

“NDDC has been in existence since 1999; what is really happening now? How is it all petitions on earth are happening? When the wind blows, it blows along with the answer,” he said.

He recalled that after President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the forensic audit of NDDC, he pointed out that as soon as this forensic audit commences, “hell would be let loose”.

The minister said the campaign against him and the Interim Management Committee “is so well-funded that you hardly open a newspaper and you don’t see a screaming headline”.

Akpabio added that all everyone is talking about is corruption in five months, “not corruption in 19 years and seven months”.

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