Stakeholders task NDDC on Niger Delta development

Stakeholders, including traditional rulers, community representatives, opinion and women leaders have resolved that contractors and individuals must put the development of the region over personal needs.

They urged the contractors to be contented with profit element in their contracts and use the large amount provided for projects to execute good jobs.

The stakeholders, therefore, called on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to publish names of defaulting contractors who have collected mobilisation funds but abandoned the project work locations.

They also demanded that needs assessment should form the basis of drawing up the NDDC budget and that the commission should be more active in preventing environmental pollution and degradation.

The stakeholders, who stated that the scourge of cancer had become prevalent in the region as a result of environmental pollution occasioned by oil exploration activities, urged the NDDC to intervene through a multi-dimensional approach to get the seaports in the South-South to become fully functional again and also build cancer research centres and hospitals.

Meanwhile, the NDDC has lamented the destruction of critical oil infrastructure in the region, saying the development had adversely affected the commission as the shortfall in oil revenue due to the destructions also brought dwindling funding for the NDDC.

Managing Director of the commission, Nsima Ekere, represented by Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo, the commissioner representing Delta State on the board of the NDDC, stated this in Warri during a meeting with stakeholders from the state.

Ifowodo advised stakeholders that rather than take the path of violent agitations which often impact negatively on the economy and people of the Niger Delta, stakeholders should always follow the path of constructive engagement which often results in win-win situations.

He also urged them to collaborate with the NDDC in the areas of project implementation and execution.