By our correspondent
It emerged yesterday that a total of N147,571,816,586.25 Billion has been released to the Ministry of Niger Delta between 2015 and 2022 by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for capital projects.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Okon Umana Okon released the figures in his presentation at the 12th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari scorecard series initiated by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The released amount is out of the total N220,554,515,629.55 Billion budgeted for the Niger Delta during the seven years period.
This accounts for a shortfall of N72,982,699,043.30, representing 66.82 % of release to appropriation during the period.
The breakdown of the seven years capital budget showed that 2018 got the highest release of
N28,813,825,001.00 billion, followed by the figure of N25,100,750,000.00 Billion released in 2017.
2015 saw the lowest amount released to the Niger Delta Ministry for capital projects standing in the sum of N4,150,000,001.00 Billion.
Umana also disclosed that the recovered funds released by EFCC to the Ministry are to be utilized to fund specific critical projects and programmes in the region, but he did attach figures to the amount released by the anti corruption agency.
He said following the forensic Audit on NDDC, out of over 4000 projects directed for termination, a total of 1,250 have been so far terminated as part of the implementation of the Forensic Audit Report.
The White Paper on the exercise is being awaited, he said, and that some funds have been returned by contractors due to non-performance and other reasons.
He added that the Ministry has completed 553 projects and programmes between 2015-2022. Some other projects, he said, are ongoing at different completion stages in the Nine (9) States of the Niger Delta Region.
He said the East-West Road project is a dual carriageway and a priority project that spans a total length of 338km with well
over 41 bridges. It runs from Warri through Port Harcourtto Oron, with a proposed extension to Calabar, he said.
He said 291km out of the 338km dual carriageway has been completed and all the 41 bridges were also completed with two deck on pile bridges substantially completed by the Ministry before the road project was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing in 2021.
According to Umana, the Niger Delta Ministry is constructing Inter-State and other Road Projects in the Region to increase number of road infrastructure in the Niger Delta Region.
“Within the period under review, a total of 102.55km and 5 Nos. Bridges have been completed. 102 Nos. Road Projects are ongoing in the Region at different completion levels. Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
“The Ministry is constructing Skills Acquisition Centres (SAC) in the Nine (9) States of Niger Delta Region at a cumulative cost of about N36billion with: 3 Nos. Skills Acquisition Centres completed; and 5 Nos. SAC ongoing in 5 States of the Niger Delta.
“We have carried out Land Reclamation and Shoreline Protection, embarkment for Flood and Erosion Control, Rehabilitation and Reclamation of degraded Eco-system, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Engineering Design, Pollution Control etc. in the Nine (9) States of the Niger Delta Region at the cost of N18,183,096,377.42 within the period under review; and 21 Nos. Environmental Projects are ongoing,” the Minister said.
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