By Ben Ogbemudia
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, Senator Godswill Akpabio has revealed that over 12,128 awarded projects by the Commission have no clear-cut ownership, saying that these were built and abandoned mid-way making these structures a haven for hoodlums and kidnappers.

The minister who made this known during a visit on Tuesday by the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Hajia Amina Mohammed, wondered why a system’s commission can be so porous to accommodate wanton wastage of resources.

He advised that to further forestall such acts of high numbers of projects being abandoned with no clearly identified owners, a strategic Implementation Work Plan should be designed to capture what is on ground in order to avoid the issues of project duplications.

“In order to stop this anomaly, we have developed within the ministry, a system called Strategic Implementation Work Plan, where whatever is on ground is captured to avoid duplication of projects, he advised.”

While speaking he noted that the forensic audit report is so revealing

“The interim report on the auditing of the NDDC account is very revealing. Over twelve thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight (12,128) projects with no clear-cut ownership, were built and abandoned and they all became sanctuaries for hoodlums and kidnappers.”

He noted that President Buhari has been magnanimous through the funding of the agency, saying that this has motivated the speedy development of the region and more specifically necessitated the approval of the president when the south-south governors met him to demand an audit of the NDDC account, holding to the fact that much has been released for the funding of the agency with little or nothing to show for it.

“The President is determined to commission the East-West Road by next year and has just commissioned the 25-year old abandoned headquarters building of the NDDC.”

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While responding, the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Hajia Amina Mohammed, applauded the effort of the minister at striving to ensure the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is peaceful, stressing that this peace enjoyed in the region should not be overlooked.

She recalled that she was instrumental and deeply involved in the amnesty process granted to former militants of the Niger Delta region by the then former president Umar Yar’Adua, hence she is passionate about the region.

She hinted that the UN agenda for the nation should be seen in the region and that very strong institutions are needed to drive home the goals and objectives of the commission, stressing that they would be glad to collaborate with the Niger Delta Ministry.

“The Ministry needs very strong institutions to drive home the goals and objectives that were set by those who established the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).”