Niger Delta Minister dissociates self from report on NDDC projects in Akwa Ibom

The Minister of Niger Delta, Mr Usani Uguru Usani, has strongly dissociated himself from media reports suggesting that he held the current Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Mr. Nsima Ekere, responsible for poor projects delivery in Akwa Ibom state.

In a statement signed by him, the Minister described the reports as malicious, stating that “they do not convey any coherent correlation between my views and the role of the current management for the deeds that span for more than one decade.”

The Minster said whereas he expressed “discontent for obvious observations of poor project execution” during his visit to Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, he pointed out that “there is no vestige of attributing the cause to the current management.”

He said he was conscious of the fact that his observation predated the current management which placed no burden of liability on the current Managing Director, adding that he made no committal pronouncement on the claims of reporting certain unaccomplished projects as completed because he never sighted any such documentary content of claims.

“It is reminiscent of simple reasoning to note that we cannot blame a five-month old management of the deeds that spans for more than one decade,” he declared.

Reacting to the reports of allegations of abandoned projects, stakeholder in the state and senior citizen, Chief Edet Nkpubre, said it was cheap blackmail to associate abandoned projects in the Commission to the present board and management.

Chief Nkpubre explained in Port Harcourt yesterday that when the Managing Director assumed office barely five months ago, he made it clear that he was going to ensure that all the projects were completed.

He said while Mr. Ekere was making effort to correct the anomalies he met in the commission, the people of the region should give him time to adequately address the problem of abandoned projects.

He said: “All these stories of abandoned project and blaming same on the present management of the commission boils down to the politics of 2019 in the state. And that is regrettable. It is impossible to assess the managing director in just five months.”

Also reacting, another stakeholder in the state, Chief Sunny Jackson, said Mr. Ekere should rather be commended for what he has done for the state, in particular, and the Niger Delta in general.
Chief Jackson said that though there were incidents of abandoned projects in the commission, credit should be given to the present management for taking positive steps to resolve them, by ordering contractors to go back to site.

Recall that the Managing Director of the commission had earlier given contractors handling projects in the commission 30 days to return to site, in order to complete all on-going projects in the region or face prosecution.

The Commission, in a Statement in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital, had explained that it had become imperative to fast track the on-going audit of projects awarded in the region, in line with the Federal Government directives as one of the planks of the new Governing Board’s 4-R Initiative, to restructure the balance sheet of the Commission and determine poor performing projects.

Mr. Ekere had said: “It is important for our contractors to realise it can’t be business as usual as President Muhammadu Buhari was determined to change how government business was conducted and that everyone must wake up to that reality.

But beyond that is the fact that we owe the Niger Delta region and our people the duty to implement and complete these projects, in order to facilitate sustainable regional development.”