The Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Kemebradikumo Pondei passed out this afternoon while being grilled by members of the House Committee on Niger Delta who are investigating claims of financial recklessness by the commission.

Professor Kemebradikumo Pondei was immediately evacuated. The probe was as a result, adjourned for 30 minutes.

On Thursday last week Pondei led other members of his management to walk out of the committee hearings . He claimed that the Chairman of the House Committee On Niger Delta, Hon. Bunmi Tunji-Ojo had been accused of committing crimes against the Niger Delta region and was therefore unfit to preside over the hearing.

Pondei claimed that having been so accused, Tunji-Ojo was an interested party in the case and it would be tantamount to the accused presiding over the hearing of his own case if he continued to preside.

That Thursday, the Committee issued a bench warrant for Pondei’s arrest but it changed its mind on Friday after Dr Joi Nunieh, the erstwhile Managing Director of the commission’s Interim Management Committee testified before the house. It ordered Pondei as well as the Minister of Niger Delta, Senator Godswill Akpabio to appear before it unfaillingly today.

Significantly, Hon. Tunji-Ojo this morning recused himself from presiding over the committee’s deliberations. It was during this sitting and when he was being questioned that Pondei slumped.