A’Ibom communities petition Gbajamiamila, ICPC over abandoned projects

TRACKING____People of Uboro Oro in Urue Offong Oruko Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom state have expressed dismay over some unexecuted Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) road projects abandoned by the contractors valued at N3.5billion.

This is contained in a petition made available to Vanguard and addressed to the House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission (ICPC) was signed by Chief Bassey Isong, Chairman of the Project Committee of the Uboro Oro Progressives Union (UPU).

Other signatories include Pastor Asukwo Mkpesit, Secretary of the projects Committee and Mr. Okwong Otioro, the Legal Adviser, and Ofong Effiong Unanaowo (JP), the traditional ruler of the area.

“The interventionist agency had awarded an N90million contract to a construction firm, TrailBlazer Engineering Ltd for one kilometer of road spanning from the East-West road at Umume in the same Local Government Area”, the petition stated, adding that the contract was thereafter abandoned.

The petitioners also pointed at the mega road project awarded by the NDDC to the tune of N2.6billion to another firm, HIGGENSMARA Nig Ltd with the initial mobilization cash of N300million, regretting that the 18-kilometer road had since been abandoned.

The road, the petitioners explained, “was to begin from Oyoku Assang in Okobo Local Government Area through Okiuso and Eweme in the same Council area with a spur of nine kilometers from Umume on East-West road, through Uboro-Oro, into Mbo Local Government Area”.

The contracts, they recalled, were flagged-off with fanfare on Wednesday, 17 July 2013, as the village head of the Uboro Oro community handed over the projects to the beneficiary firms of the NDDC.

“That day and the ceremony was the last anything happened on the N90million contracts, while an official of the NDDC told a representative of the community who went to Port Harcourt, Rivers state-to ascertain the petition of the N2.6billion job was told that the mother of the Managing Director (MD) of HIGGENSMARA Nig Ltd had a health challenge and he had to use the N300million mobilization fee to her abroad for treatment”.

They noted that the affected communities were forced to move with the petitions after discovering that the contractors in collusion with the NDDC officials had taken photographs of another completed project and presented the same “as evidence that the jobs had been completed”.

They, therefore, urged the Reps’ Speaker and the ICPC to investigate the matter with a view to compelling the contractors to return to sites, especially now that the NDDC books are being subjected to forensic analysis over years of fraud and contracts scam.