A nascent youth organization, the Niger Delta Youth Council (NDYC)has urged the Federal Government to show spirited concern in the development of the Niger Delta region by ensuring that the avalanche of abandoned projects that dot the region are duly completed.
The group also pledged to support efforts of the government to expose contractors who had abandoned projects awarded to them to ensure that such projects are completed according to specification or the contractors brought to book. In a statement jointly signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Jator Abido and Delta Coordinator, Comrade Ajar Harrison, in Abuja, the NDYC observed that the region is flooded with abandoned projects that if completed will add immense value to the lives of the Niger Delta people. The statement unfortunately stated that those projects were abandoned because both the contractors and the benefiting community leaders either took advantage of the reign of impunity in the system then, and/or compromised on the utmost need of having those projects completed and put to use.
The statement reads in part “we at the NDYC have watched with amazement how that greed and compromise of our leaders have resulted in dotting of abandoned projects across the Niger Delta region. Contractors have taken advantage of the reign of impunity just as community leaders whose communities should benefit from these projects compromise on the utmost need to ensure they have these projects duly completed in their communities. Such insensitivity is capable of destroying our development projections as a region.
Against this backdrop, we urge that the Federal Government under the able leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to show spirited concern in the development of the Niger Delta by first identifying such projects and then causing the contractors to return to site and completing them according to specification”.
Arguing further that abandonment of projects have negated the development of the region, the NDYC statement recalled that the people of Omedino and Ukpokiti communities for instance have suffered untold hardship arising from the abandonment of the phase 1 Excravos road linking them and other towns in Delta state. It stressed that the project which was awarded to Contra and Fab Engineering Company Limited at over N7.1 billion has been abandoned over 7 years ago.
The group blame similar tendencies for the prolonged state of militancy and insecurity in the region saying that the situation saw a surge in frequent protests by interest groups leading up to uncontrollable agitations.
Bassey Ita,
Chief Press Secretary, Office of the National Vice Chairman
(South/South), APC.
