07042018 - Investigate your ministers
Vanguard Newspaper 07 April 2018
Vanguard Newspaper 07 April 2018
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42—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 7, 2018<br />
26 YRS AFTER CREATION OF DELTA:<br />
Okowa tackles<br />
most difficult<br />
project in Asaba<br />
•To spend over N30 billion on 8 storm<br />
drainage channels, discharge points<br />
•Speaks on Fulani herdsmen<br />
Emma Amaize Regional Editor South-<br />
South, Festus Ahon & Ochuko Akuopha<br />
SINCE August 27, 1991, nearly 27<br />
years ago when Delta State was<br />
created, none of the Governors that<br />
ruled the state, civilian and military, mustered<br />
the finances to deal with the flood problem<br />
facing Asaba, the state capital, yet it was noticeably<br />
the major impediment disquieting the capital<br />
city.<br />
Each year, flood overruns Asaba, the boundary<br />
between the state and neighbouring Anambra<br />
state. Both government and private<br />
establishments are not spared. While residents<br />
wondered if there was no government in place,<br />
visitors brood over why the capital of an oil-rich<br />
state should be such a tragedy.<br />
With only three to five rainfalls in Asaba, this<br />
year, the people already have their hearts in their<br />
mouths, but the state governor, Senator Ifeanyi<br />
Okowa, who embarked on the construction of<br />
storm drains, months ago, told journalists in an<br />
interactive session that his government was<br />
doing everything to stop the yearly<br />
humiliation.<br />
Taking the bull by the horn<br />
To check flood in Asaba and environs,<br />
Okowa, however, said his government<br />
would spend more than N30 billion on<br />
the construction of eight storm<br />
drainage channels, including discharge<br />
points.<br />
“We have taken the bull by the horn as<br />
regards flood control in the state; we<br />
wanted to be sure that we were on the right<br />
path, we did not just want to start<br />
constructing drains all over again without<br />
bringing solutions to the flood issues in<br />
Asaba. So our consultants worked with<br />
the Nigerian Society of Engineers to<br />
provide us with eight options of drains.<br />
“Storm drainages that we had to<br />
undertake as a state, which was put at a<br />
total cost of a little above N30 billion and<br />
out of the eight strategic network of<br />
drains, we chose to work with three as<br />
they were very critical and the total cost of<br />
the three is about N11 billion.”<br />
“The first one we started with was the<br />
one that is going to be within the area of<br />
Direct Labour Agency, DLA Road<br />
through Jesus Saves Road, Agric Road<br />
area and that is the construction that is<br />
ongoing straight from that area through<br />
the Nnebisi Road to the Amilimocha River<br />
and I think that the project has gone very<br />
far,” he said.<br />
Project going on well<br />
Governor Okowa explained: “We<br />
have been promised that the project will be delivered<br />
by the end of May, this year, and we are happy to<br />
announce that from my inspections, the project is<br />
going on very well and I am sure that a lot of us would<br />
have had the opportunity to see this construction and<br />
for those of us who may not have, I must appeal that<br />
for us to be able to do proper reporting, there is a need<br />
for us to visit the projects to see what is on going.”<br />
He added: “There are two other projects, one of<br />
them is the drainage project that will take us through<br />
Ambassador Ralph Uwechie Road to discharge to<br />
the Anwai stream and that project is already ongoing;<br />
the project was awarded about a month ago and<br />
work is ongoing and it will take 12 months to<br />
complete.”<br />
2019 completion date<br />
“So we may not be getting all the relief within the<br />
Okpanam areas all through the rainy season, but<br />
it is our hope that before the next rainy season, they<br />
would have completed the project. So hopefully the<br />
project will be delivered by God’s grace by the end of<br />
February, 2019 and once it is completed, it is going<br />
to drain the larger part of Okpanam, while part of the<br />
water coming from Okpanam will be drained through<br />
the project that has a discharge<br />
point at the Iyi-Abi stream that<br />
is across the Asaba/Onitsha<br />
expressway.<br />
“And I am happy to<br />
announce that the company<br />
working on the Okpanam<br />
project has stepped up their<br />
pace of work; the third of the<br />
storm drainage projects is the<br />
one that is going to drain the<br />
Delta Broadcasting Service,<br />
DBS, area and the adjoining<br />
areas around the DBS and that<br />
project is a 12 -month project<br />
and I hope that they all will be<br />
delivered on time because the<br />
impact of the projects will only<br />
be fully felt in the year 2019.<br />
It is my hope that we can<br />
reasonably go far enough<br />
before the rains sets in this<br />
year,” the governor stated.<br />
Count me out of contract<br />
scam<br />
On the accusation that he<br />
was executing the state’s new<br />
Secretariat and other projects<br />
through cronies, Okowa<br />
laughed, saying: “I do not<br />
know how many of us have<br />
been to that secretariat that is<br />
being built, I am sure that you<br />
are proud of what is going on<br />
there. If Dr.Okowa has the<br />
competence to own a<br />
company to build that kind of project, I would be very<br />
proud of myself, unfortunately, I do not.”<br />
His words: “And the company is not hidden, it is<br />
a Chinese company, and those who went with us then<br />
saw the Chinese who are there. But I must commend<br />
the management because out of the over 160 people<br />
working on that site, only 11 of them were brought<br />
from China, the other 150 are Nigerians. And the<br />
level of organisation, the quality of the work is<br />
something that we must be proud of, I am actually<br />
proud of them.”<br />
“When they first came in, I was scared initially<br />
until we actually proved from their embassy that they<br />
were very competent, and truly with the speed,<br />
level of work and organisation at the work site, they<br />
are actually people to be proud of. I am convinced<br />
from what I have seen at this stage that it is something<br />
that will come out well.<br />
“ Probably, I am part of the Chinese government<br />
because the company is a Chinese- owned firm. If I<br />
have that level of connection in China, I am sure I<br />
would have been able to do much more for Deltans,<br />
I wish I could but I am not,” he said.<br />
Asaba Airport hullabaloo with contractor<br />
Speaking on the disagreement between the state<br />
government and ULO Consultants, the former<br />
contractor handling the Asaba Airport project, who<br />
dragged the government to court after his contract<br />
was terminated, he said: “ULO ask for repudiation<br />
of contract and we did and gave it to somebody else.<br />
He is already in court with us. It is already a subject of<br />
litigation, so we have to go the full hug of the court.”<br />
“ We are aware that he is owing us some money,<br />
but he said ‘no,’ that the state is owing him. We have<br />
done our calculations and we know that he is owing<br />
us. We will meet in court and we are quite convinced<br />
that it is only a matter that he will pay back our<br />
money,” the governor said.<br />
Beleaguered Delta Line<br />
On an allegation that Delta Line workers were<br />
stopping the takeover of the company by God is Good<br />
Motors, the Governor asserted: “On the Delta Line,<br />
work is in progress. I guess the committee has signed<br />
the necessary agreement, the process of takeover is<br />
about now. I have to help in paying two months salaries<br />
because I hear they are still owing them. We are trying<br />
to offset the salary arrears. They are not preventing<br />
God is Good from coming in, I think they are<br />
identifying the vehicles and where they are.”<br />
“Initially I was told that they were not able to<br />
account for 92 vehicles but I have been told that they<br />
have been accounted for. The next thing now is to find<br />
out which workers are likely to stay back, and which<br />
workers are supposed to laid off and paid off. It could<br />
be a little slow, but it is better to get things right than<br />
rush things wrongly,” he stated.<br />
Police handling herdsmen breach in Uwheru<br />
Concerning reports that herdsmen had taken over<br />
three communities in the state, he said: “There was<br />
this headline in Channels and I think it was over<br />
exaggerated. When the Assistant Inspector General,<br />
AIG, in charge of Zone 5 came, I had to raise that<br />
issue because I was fresh from a town hall meeting in<br />
Ughelli where we were actually told by the Uwheru<br />
community that the problem has been lingering<br />
on there about herdsmen destroying their crops”<br />
“ So, the Uwheru community is a ward, but it has<br />
several small villages and I am told that in three of<br />
the smaller villages, the herdsmen had actually taken<br />
over their bush, not where they live and that they are<br />
insisting, according to the President General, that<br />
they can come into the bush,but they must pay<br />
money and I had to raise it because it was a<br />
worrying situation, because that is the first time<br />
I had heard about that.<br />
“I know that some work is being done, the<br />
Commissioner of Police briefed me as to what<br />
they want to do. In fact, he had discussed with<br />
the Inspector General of Police on the matter,<br />
some decisions has been taken, which I cannot<br />
publicly tell you because it will not be right to let<br />
out what plans are being put in place by the<br />
police, but obviously, we are working hard to<br />
address that situation,” he said.<br />
Delta/Edo boundary dispute<br />
According to him, “The boundary dispute<br />
between Abraka and Edo community is<br />
something that has been on, and we are still<br />
waiting for the Boundary Commission and I<br />
hope that soon, they will be able to give a date.<br />
We are prepared as a state for the purpose of<br />
boundary delineation, but they have not been<br />
able to give a date and I heard that two previous<br />
dates that were taken, it was not possible to start<br />
the process because it is something that is going<br />
to take several weeks when they come in. So we<br />
are working hard to get a new date for the<br />
boundary delineation.<br />
Governor Okowa dismissed insinuation that<br />
he squandered money on the just concluded local<br />
government elections, proclaiming:’DSIEC did<br />
ask for a little over billion naira but what we did<br />
approve for that election was N700 million. And<br />
that was what they worked with apart from the<br />
two elections that had to be repeated for which<br />
they asked for N20 million bringing the total to<br />
N720 million that was spent.”<br />
He added: “ I want to believe that that was<br />
very prudent spending considering the fact that<br />
the bulk of the money actually goes into the<br />
payment of staff that are engaged on ad-hoc<br />
basis.We have over 3000 units across the state,<br />
and each of the unit was manned by a polling<br />
officer and two poll clerks. That is quite a lot<br />
apart from the payment of other staff that are<br />
engaged and the security. So they were quite<br />
prudent with the elections compared to what we<br />
know is being spent in such elections. That is the<br />
situation.”<br />
Companies not paying tax because of<br />
downturn<br />
He asserted that there was no hanky-panky<br />
on Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, in the<br />
state, stating: “The IGR varies from month to<br />
month, it is not hidden. There are some months<br />
we generate over N2 billion and some N3 billion,<br />
but on a few occasions, we have actually crossed<br />
N4 billion. We were hoping that by now, we<br />
should be able to drive the process beyond N5<br />
billion but because of the recession, many<br />
companies are actually not able to pay. The bulk<br />
of the money comes from PAYE, many oil service<br />
companies are no longer strongly alive to pay<br />
and to employ people.”<br />
“And for some of them which are paying, they<br />
are no longer paying the allowances, the huge<br />
allowances that enable the PAYE to rise, it is no<br />
longer so. For instance, the least we get from<br />
Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, in the past<br />
was over N1.5 billion, but it has dropped to as<br />
low as N700 million. Shell that used to pay about<br />
N1 billion monthly has left Delta state. So for<br />
the skeletal services they provide, the highest we<br />
now get from Shell is about N82 million.