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By Lawrence Agbo
The Isama Ajie of Asaba, Chuck Nduka-Eze has dismissed claims that there was a formal contract attached to the proposed Asaba Memorial Site project, insisting that no such project existed for former lawmaker Ndudi Elumelu to award.
Speaking on the controversy surrounding the planned Asaba Massacre Memorial Centre on ARISE News, Nduka-Eze said he was surprised when he received a call from a man who introduced himself as a consultant to Elumelu and claimed that the contract for the memorial centre had been awarded to him.
According to him, the claim immediately raised suspicion because the House of Representatives had only indicated that it intended to make a contribution to the community in support of the memorial effort, not initiate a formal contract project.
“I got a call from a gentleman who said he was a consultant to Right Hon. Ndudi Elumelu and that the contract for the Asaba massacre memorial center has been awarded to me, which I found particularly odd,” he said.
He explained that the lawmakers had made it clear that their role was simply to support the community’s effort to preserve the memory of the victims of the historic Asaba Massacre, and there was never any official project requiring contract allocation.
“The House of Representatives had made it clear that they were actually just making a contribution to the community, so the idea of a contract didn’t even arise,” Nduka-Eze added.
The Asaba Memorial Site project is aimed at preserving the memory of those killed during the 1967 Asaba Massacre, one of the most painful events of the Nigerian Civil War, when hundreds of civilians were reportedly killed.
Nduka-Eze maintained that any suggestion that Elumelu personally awarded contracts for the project was misleading and did not reflect the true nature of the initiative.
