The Niger Delta Development Commission has said the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, stands by the list of contractors he released in which he named some lawmakers, including ex-governors as NDDC contractors.

It said the names emanated from files in the possession of the forensic auditors, adding that it was part of the volume of 8,000 documents handed over to the audit team.

The minister had during an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives last month, revealed that some lawmakers were beneficiaries of NDDC projects.

He, subsequently, released a list of the contractors which included the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Peter Nwabaoshi, whose name was listed against 53 projects.

He also said Senator Matthew Urhoghide and Sen. James Manager got six projects each while a former senator, Samuel Anyanwu, got 19 projects.

The former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC, Nicholas Mutu, was also named by the minister as receiving 74 contracts, as well as a former Delta State governor, James Ibori, and ex-Abia state governor, Orji Kalu.

All the men had denied the allegations, but the NDDC Director of Corporate Affairs, Charles Odili, in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, said, “The Interim Management Committee of the commission stands by the list which came from files already in the possession of the forensic auditors.

“It is not an Akpabio list but the NDDC’s list; the list is part of the volume of 8,000 documents already handed over to the forensic auditors.

“Prominent indigenes of the Niger Delta whose names were on the list should not panic as the commission knew that people used the names of prominent persons in the region to secure contracts, and the ongoing forensic audit would unearth those behind the contracts.”

In a statement titled, ‘NDDC Invites President Buhari To Commission Signature Project’, the commission justified the release of the contractors’ names, noting that the “intention of the list was to expose committee chairmen in the National Assembly who used fronts to collect contracts from the commission, some of which were never executed.”

The National Assembly had called for the dissolution of the Interim Management Committee and the return of the NDDC to the Presidency for direct supervision