RIVERS State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has threatened to drag the Niger Delta Development Commission to court over the alleged refusal of the agency to pay its counterpart fund for the Mother and Child Hospital project in the state.
The governor gave the interventionist agency a seven-day ultimatum to provide its part of the funds for the project or be ready for a legal action.
He also said that the NDDC had become a political institution, where funds were used for political purposes.
Wike added that the Federal Government deliberately refused to constitute the NDDC Governors’ Advisory Committee because majority of the South-South states were controlled by the PDP.
The governor spoke on Wednesday during a courtesy visit by the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Prof. Nelson Braimbaifa.
Wike regretted that the commission had failed to deliver development projects to the Niger Delta region.
He said, “The NDDC has become a political institution, where money is set aside for politics. Mention one mega project by the NDDC anywhere in Rivers State.
“The only mega project, the Mother and Child Hospital, which was to be a joint project, the NDDC duped the Rivers State Government.”
He also said, ‘’For the Mother and Child Hospital, we paid our counterpart fund but the NDDC paid nothing. We have taken over the project, yet the NDDC has refused to refund our money. If the NDDC fails to refund our counterpart fund in seven days, we will drag the commission to court.”
Wike advised the management of the NDDC to go back to the drawing board to fashion out ways to site mega projects in the states, where the commission operated.
He said the current piecemeal projects would not help to develop the region.
Earlier, the acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Brambaifa, said that the commission was committed to executing projects that would improve the lives of the people of the Niger Delta region.
He said several key projects had been designed by the NDDC to improve the living standards of the people.
Brambaifa called for the revival of the NDDC Governors’ Advisory Committee to assist the NDDC to carry out its development projects in the region.
He said that the commission had undertaken 1,793 projects, out of which 800 had been completed and 540 yet to be completed.
Culled from Punch
