…Says 50% of 13,000 projects identified by NDDC forensic audit completed
The Federal Government has said its multi-billion naira 338km East-West road would soon be inaugurated.
The Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, Umana Umana, who disclosed this, said the dual carriage highway, which traverses the entire region, is 80 per cent completed, describing it as the defining project of his ministry.
The Minister, who spoke during a Radio Nigeria interview programme in Abuja, explained that the redesigning of the Eleme (Rivers state) section of the road into a six-lane super highway is to accommodate heavy traffic from the industrial clusters between Eleme and Onne.
“The 338-km dual carriage way is 80 percent complete. On the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari, the road project was handed over to the Ministry of Works and Housing, which has redesigned the Eleme section in Rivers State into a six-lane superhighway to accommodate heavy traffic from the industrial clusters between Eleme and Onne portion of the road,” Umana said.
He also explained that the report of the forensic audit of the NDDC identified more than 13,000 projects, 50 per cent of which had been completed.“Umana added: “I have directed the NDDC to follow up on the Forensic Audit Report, and publish a compendium of projects completed in the nine states, sector by sector, location by location, date and cost of the contracts to enhance accountability and transparency.”
On housing projects, Umana said the ministry had built housing estates in all the states of the region, noting that some of the houses had been allocated to end users.
According to him, the new housing plan in the ministry is to encourage investors to develop site-and-service schemes, so people can be incentivized to build their own houses.
Umana said the Federal Government was deeply concerned with environmental pollution in the Niger Delta, and was considering recommendations from the MDAs on how to tackle the problems posed by illegal refinery, which is a significant contributory factor to environmental pollution in the region.
He added that the ministry would further strengthen collaboration with other stakeholders, including state governments in the region, especially in the area of planning and monitoring of projects to avoid duplication.
Vanguard