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The people of Ogbia kingdom in Bayelsa State have called on the trio of the federal, state governments and the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to continue as well as re-award and complete all roads projects abandoned in the kingdom.
Speaking with journalists during a courtesy visit, the Obanobhan (monarch) of Ogbia kingdom, His Eminence, Dumaro Charles Owaba, berated the trio for not considering the effects of abandoning infrastructural projects on the communities and the people of the kingdom.
He alleged that there was an instance when in 2015, the NDDC awarded an eight kilometer road, expected to link Otakeme-Otabi-Otuogidi communities of the kingdom, but abandoned it after making budgetary approvals to a certain undisclosed amount for the project.
The monarch who also condemned the slow pace of work and incomplete Okaki-Kolo-Nembe road project, called on the Federal Government and its relevant agencies to prevail on the contractor to come back to site, with a view to completing it.
“In Ogbia kingdom today, there’s no single motorable road. The road from Edepie-Yenagoa-Ogbia is in complete state of disrepair, the one linking Onuebum and Otuoke communities has been badly damaged, and therefore has become a death trap, especially with the floods coming.
“As a people, we’re very well abreast with what’s happening in our domain. The road which was supposed to link Otabi from Otakeme community through Otuogidi, co-host community of the Otabagi (Oloibiri oil wells) was awarded by the NDDC in 2015, monies were appropriated for it, but after the release of the first and second tranches of the funds for it, the ghost contractor ran out of site and all efforts to know the identity of the said contractor has been abortive.
“It’s even worse for the Anyama clan of Ogbia kingdom. They’re completely inaccessible by road. But I was informed the immediate past governor of the state, Seriake Dickson, awarded the contract for the construction of a road from Yenagoa to that part of my kingdom. However, as we speak there’s no meaningful work done there”, he said.
He commended the Bayelsa State government for the completion of the Imiringi bridge and the subsequent award of the Elebele bridge in the Emeyal clan of the kingdom. Urging however, that the job be done thoroughly and finished on time, he noted that the Elebele bridge links all the local government areas in the state’s Eastern Senatorial zone.
He also applauded the contractor handling the Federal Government owned Bayelsa palm-Otuoke-Kolo road for doing a good job, adding that when completed, it would ameliorate some of the burden occasioned by the comatose state of roads in the kingdom.
“Another well-conceived, but abandoned road by the Bayelsa State government in Ogbia kingdom is the Otuoke-Ewoi-Otuabula-Abobiri-Ogbia town road,
“This road was awarded many years ago by the Bayelsa State government. I was told the government released part of the funds for this gigantic project, but again the said contractor pulled out of site for no obvious reasons, and successive administrations have continued to abandon that project.
“So it’s with the Opume-Okoroba road awarded by the Federal Government and others, such as the Idema road, the Otuegila-Amorokeni and the Otuoba-Akoloman-Otabi roads”, the monarch added.
Recall that piqued by the plethora of NNDC abandoned projects dotting nooks and crannies of Bayelsa, the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Seriake Dickson, following outcry by stakeholders on the menace of abandoned projects by the interventionist agency, set up a committee headed by a former commissioner for Works, Engr. Charles Ambaowei, to verify all abandoned projects.
Unfortunately the committee’s report, for eight years, did not see the light of the day, ostensibly to shield highly placed personalities who were awarded shore protection, road, sand filling contracts as political patronage without execution, after collecting mobilisation fees.
The NDDC since its inception in 2000 has been plagued by a litany of abandoned projects which observers say when investigated could be traced to highly placed personalities from the Niger Delta region “with their collaborators that are in the fore front of campaign against marginalisation, oppression and neglect by successive federal governments.”
