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07042018 - Investigate your ministers

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.

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