By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has dismissed as bad politics and mischievous allegations by officials of the Cross River State Government that it hijacked projects undertaken by the state.
Speaking on Wednesday in Bayelsa State during the inauguration of some projects executed by the commission, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the interventionist agency, Barrister Chiedu Ebie, wondered why some people would descend so low as to tell barefaced lies against the commission just to cast it in a bad light and score cheap political goals. The NDDC boss warned such individuals to leave the commission out of their dirty politics, as the NDDC is irrevocably committed to the socio-infrastructural development of the Niger Delta region and, therefore, has no time for inanities.
Said the NDDC Chairman: “Twenty-five years in existence, as the MD said; last week, again, as the MD said, we were in Calabar, and we were there to commission a state office and also some roads in Calabar South Local Government Area and Calabar Municipality, but it is very unfortunate that despite the good work and the amount of effort and energy put into these projects, not just by the contractors but also by the staff who monitored, evaluated, and certified them, that people will take it upon themselves to cast us in bad light or ensure that they spin the wrong narrative out there.
“Yesterday or two days ago, the media was awash with the projects we went to commission in Calabar, where they alleged that due process was not followed in the award of the road projects.”
Continuing, Barrister Ebie stressed: “The law states that the Chairman and Managing Director shall sign contracts on behalf of the commission. We only do that when due process is followed—the procurement process is done, the award letter issued, and the bill of engineering measurement is also issued. So, how can a mischievous individual sit down and say there was no award letter, there was nothing, and so, how did the contractor go to the site? Did he just go there and do whatever he wanted to do?
“Politics is politics; leave your politics aside, do not include the NDDC because this is a new NDDC, and we are determined to make a difference.”
Agents of the Cross River State Government, including senior aides of Governor Bassey Otu, last week disrupted the commissioning ceremony of NDDC-executed road projects in the capital, Calabar, claiming the projects belonged to the state government.