The House of Representatives has mandated the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to put on hold the release of 15 billion naira counterpart funding requested by the Federal Government, pending the approval of the Commission’s budget by the House.

This was after a member of the green chamber, Unyime Idem, moved a motion drawing the attention of the House to the Federal Government’s request.

According to the request, the Ministry of Niger Delta was to jointly finance an intervention and humanitarian programme of sums running into several billions of naira using the money recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) without budgetary provision.