The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has stirred fresh controversy by accusing former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi’s wife, Judith, of benefiting from a questionable NDDC contract worth N4 billion monthly and calling on President Bola Tinubu to make public the long-suppressed forensic audit report of the commission.
Wike, who made the explosive allegations during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, said the NDDC audit, commissioned under former President Muhammadu Buhari, contains damning revelations linking a company allegedly owned by Judith Amaechi to an annual payout of N48 billion under the guise of training Niger Delta women.
“I challenge Mr. President to release the forensic audit of the NDDC,” Wike said. “If what I am saying is not in the report, I will resign as FCT Minister.
“This is public money—N4 billion every month to train women in the Niger Delta. That’s how his wife became an ‘industrialist.’”
He further alleged that the audit, which covered the commission’s financial activities from 2001 to 2019, was deliberately buried by former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to shield powerful figures who might be indicted.
“Who killed the document? Malami. He killed it to protect those concerned. We can’t keep pretending. Nigerians deserve to know the truth,” he added.
Wike’s comments were in response to Amaechi’s earlier jibe on the same programme, where he questioned Wike’s popularity and dismissed his political influence, daring him to undertake a “popularity walk” from Abuja to Port Harcourt.
In a fiery rebuttal, Wike discredited Amaechi’s claim that his wife is a self-made industrialist. “At the time Amaechi’s wife was receiving N4 billion monthly from the NDDC, she was no industrialist. That is the record,” he said.
He insisted that his political rise predates his relationship with Amaechi. “I never knew Rotimi from Adams. I contested and won the chairmanship of Obio/Akpor local government in 1998—long before I met him,” Wike stated.
The FCT Minister also rebuked Amaechi’s demand for respect based on seniority, arguing that respect is earned by integrity, not age or former titles.
“You don’t get respect because you are 200 years old. You earn it through honour and principle,” Wike said.
The forensic audit report of the Niger Delta Development Commission was commissioned in 2019 amid widespread allegations of mismanagement, corruption, and non-execution of projects. Although the audit was completed and submitted, the federal government has yet to publish or act on its findings.
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