Breaking: NDDC’s Acting Director Of Finance, Ibanga Bassey Etang, Dies

By Akinwale Kasali

A few days to the National Assembly’s probe on the Interim Management Committee, IMC,  of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, the Acting Executive Director of Finance and Administration, of the Commission, Ibanga Bassey Etang, has died .

Etang died Thursday  morning.

His death has been dogged by a number of speculations. Nobody knows which one to believe, as to the cause of his sudden passing.

A source told the magazine that he was poisoned and his poisoning may have been carried out by a desperate party to cover up some untidy businesses at the Commission.

For emphasis,  the source reminded that basically the duty of the Executive Director Finance and Administration is to approve payments for contracts, and he may have been killed  to cover up documents that may expose unwholesome businesses.

Another source within the NDDC fold told the magazine that the senior official died on Wednesday night after a brief but undisclosed illness, quashing reports that he died today.

Yet, another source insists he may have died of COVID-19, an insistence vehemently denied by some associates.

The late Etang is reported to have been absent from work at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt throughout the week.

He was also conspicuously absent during the flag-off of the distribution of corona-virus palliatives by the NDDC on the 22nd of May

Etang died when his services were needed most at the Commission. The NDDC is undergoing a Forensic Audit ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The National Assembly is also insisting on probing the finances of the Commission under the IMC, over an alleged missing/ mismanaged/ misappropriated N40b.

The IMC dismisses the allegation as a huge joke.

Etang’s body has been wheeled to the ‘Holding Area’, called ‘COVID-19 Area’, of Braithwaite Memorial Hospital, Port Harcourt.

An autopsy is expected to be performed on his body to determine the cause of death.