Hon. Dakuku Peterside By Adeola Akinremi The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Dakuku Peterside, has provided reasons for staging a walkout on the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen and his team, during the budget defence session by the Federal Ministry of Works at the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The lawmaker, who represents Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency of Rivers State, said he decided to leave the budget session when he discovered from the ministry’s records regarding ongoing projects and 2014 budget proposal that there was no single allocation for projects in Rivers State. “The few projects listed in Rivers State got zero allocation,” he disclosed. According to Peterside, “It would have been immoral and grossly irresponsible of me to remain in a budget session that excluded my home state and my people, despite our huge contributions to the Federation Account.” He wondered why a state like Rivers would be neglected in the federal government development plan, saying that there was definitely more to this omission than meets the eye. A breakdown of details of ongoing highway and bridge projects in Rivers State show that no single allocation was given to such projects as construction of Eleme Junction Flyover and dualisation of the access roads to Onne Port in Rivers State; access roads to Eleme Port Harcourt Refinery; construction of Bodo-Bonny Road with a bridge across the Opobo Channel and the rehabilitation of the Abalamabie (Allison Hart) bridge. The Rivers State government had awarded and completed Eleme Junction Flyover project in the year 2009. Although Onolememen had absolved the executive of any blame, insisting that there is no political undertone and that there was also no issue against Rivers State, Peterside stressed that the unfair distribution of projects particularly to other South-south states raises even more questions. Onolememen however explained that the zero allocation to road projects in Rivers State was not deliberate but occasioned by the poor envelope given to the ministry in 2014. Also, part of the prevailing mistrust is the dualisation of the Ahoada-Omoku Road project funded by the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC), which was captured in 2014 budget of the Ministry of Works, raising issues of duplication, though the minister also claimed the contractor had been reassigned to a project in Abonnema that was not even reflected in the budget. Peterside also queried the wisdom behind handling of Bodo-Bonny Road project through Public/Private/Partnership after being in the budget for eight years. He further stated that this claim of involving PPP smacks of insincerity, as there is nothing to show that the PPP process is in place. In another breath, the minister claimed at the budget session that the Enugu-Port Harcourt Road was being given maximum attention, with plenty of funds already allocated. But Peterside countered this saying “this is not true because the Rivers State Government is already working on the Port Harcourt Oyigbo axis of the road through JDP Ltd. And the Port Harcourt-Oyigbo axis is the only part of the Port Harcourt-Enugu road that is located in Rivers State.” The lawmaker therefore called on those concerned to ensure that Rivers people are not made to suffer unnecessarily on account of perceived political differences.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 11:22:22 +0000
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