Connect with us

Investigations

INVESTIGATION… How NDDC spent N2bn on abandoned, non-existent road projects in Edo communities

Published

on

REVIEW.... Conspiratorial Silence! Why NDDC’s stolen billions may never be found

In 2014, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) awarded 10 road projects worth over N2 billion in various communities in Edo State, with a 12-month completion period. Five years after, our reporter, SUNDAY ELOM N., who visited the project sites in the four local government areas, found that many of the projects were awarded to front companies, and unregistered entities which did not have the capacity to execute them.

 

Poorly executed Amawu Street road in Ikpoba-OkhaLocal Government Area of Edo State

Poorly executed Amawu Street road

It was 2:27 pm on a sunny Tuesday in September when the reporter arrived at Deaconess Rose Arasomwan’s provision store on Amawu Street.

She had attended to only three customers since 6:00 am when she opened her small provision store in front of her house located along the road.

She told the reporter that her business crashed since the beginning of the 2020 rainy season as customers find it difficult to visit her provision store because the road was now waterlogged, from a failed NDDC road project.

The deep waterlogged portion starts a few meters away from the entrance of the street to Arasomwan’s provision store.

The problem is not just about her business. “Water from the road floods my entire house whenever it rains,” she lamented.

The signpost at the entrance of the street shows that the road project was awarded to Derants System Limited and the reporter confirmed it was awarded at the sum of N249 million. Residents said the contractor, completed work on it in July 2019. However, the road has become impassable.

Although the stretch of the road is less than two kilometers, commercial tricycle riders charge between N500 to N1000 for a trip.

Deaconess Rose Arasomwan explaining the effects of the poorly executed Amawu Street road on her business and her house. Photo by Sunday Elom N.

Roseline Oliha who was identified as the first and oldest house owner in the area, said “Instead of using laterite to sand-fill the road, the contractor used sharp sand (grit)”

“They [the contractors] mixed 12 head-pans of grit, 12 head-pans of granite and half a bag of cement with some buckets of water for the construction,” the chairman of the residents association in the area, Kenneth Erhunmwunse, said.

He said they rejected the work but the contractor said if they don’t like it, he would abandon the job, and nobody would come again to do it.

Many parts of the road are completely waterlogged, making it impassable, even on foot. One of the waterlogged potions is so deep that it is almost knee – deep. To bypass the deep waterlogs, residents had to create tiny footpaths in people’s compounds, while in some places they have to jump over people’s fences.

Amawu Street Chairman and Roseline Oliha demonstrating how residents walk through the deep waterlog on the poorly executed road. Photo by Sunday Elom N

 

Nosakhare Nowanagbe, one of the leaders of the area,complained that their children miss school almost every day during the rainy season.

“At a point, the road became so bad that any tricyclist who agrees to carry the students to the main road from inside the street charges from N500 to N700,” he said.

When the reporter contacted the contractor, Engr. Law Aniebonam, he said he completed the project many years ago and that NDDC had approved his work, adding “however it looks now does not concern me.”

Meanwhile, a search for Derants System Limited on the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) website did not turn up any result for the company.

Abandoned Upper Ekenwan road

The reporter visited the Upper Ekenwan road project site in Egor local government area and found that the project had been abandoned.

Awarded to First Gilt Limited in December 2014 at the sum of N145m, the road is in a terrible state.

Residents said that in 2018, Eghe Ogbemudia, the chairman of Egor local government, did a temporary rehabilitation on the road by grading and sand-filling it.

Again, in 2019, according to Michael Idemudia who owns a restaurant by the side of the road, an unidentified construction company started work on the road. The contractor could not be confirmed as there was no sign post at the project site.

However, Benjamin Iserhianrhian, one of the elders at Ugbighoko community said the construction company suspected to be an NDDC contractor abandoned the road when COVID-19 started.

“They started construction of drains but reached half and stopped. When they wanted to sand-fill it halfway without making it a complete drainage, we refused,” Iserhianrhian said.

He lamented that the road has become a threat to the lives of users and the surrounding communities, especially from Powerline Junction to Gelegele Army Barracks.

“Most families close to the road have been displaced by erosion and flood from the uncompleted drainage,” he said. Three to four accidents occur on the road every week, it was learnt.