Segun Babatunde, Bauchi
The Arewa Round Table Against Corrupt Practices (ARTACP) has explained that there is no abandoned projects awarded by the Northeast Development Commission (NEDC) in the region.
A statement signed by Comrade Aliyu A Mohammed and Lawal Abdullahi, Coordinator and Secretary of the group respectively said the allegations of misappropriation of funds against the North East Development Commission under the leadership of Mohammed Goni Akali to the tune of N146.19 billion is mischievious, false and baseless.
The statement which was made available to Journalists Sunday in Bauchi while reacting to the allegations published by some media outlets insinuating that there are funds misappropriations in NEDC, they said the allegations are nothing but mischief and falsehood aimed at discrediting the leadership of NEDC.
According to the Arewa Goup, “After a thorough investigations by our group, and we visited all the Areas mentioned by the petitioners on fact finding mission, based on our findings revealed that there is no abandoned projects awarded by the NEDC in the entire six northeastern states “.
“All the projects awarded by the commission either has reached 50 to 70 percent of completion or the contractors are making final arragement to commence the project”.
“It seems the petitioners don’t know the projects that they are talking about or where the projects are sited for example the petitioners talked about housing in Yobe both Potiskum and Nguru the contractors are making final preparations to commence the projects but the 250 houses allocated in Damaturu have reached 70 percent of completion so also 50 houses each in Geidam Gujba,Bade and Jakusko all the construction is ongoing and have reached 50 to 70 percent completion”.
The group explained that “On the issue of supply of equipment at Eye Clinic Centre in Azare, the suppy of the equipments was sucessfully completed and many people are benefitting from the equipment, on the construction of ICT training centre; and construction of College of Legal and Islamic Studies, Misau, all in Bauchi state, the college was constructed even before the birth of NEDC, and no project was cited in the college by the NEDC”.
The petitioners alleged abandoned
construction of central workshop in Maiduguri, Borno; construction of Birma Primary School at Kashimbila in Taraba; Madagali and Pinilla primary schools projects in Adamawa., To put the record straight the above contract were not awarded by the commission, Mega School Project was sited in Mubi South of Adamawa State.and the construction is on going it has reached 60 to 70 percent of completion. Three bridges were constructed in Madagali and Michika all in Adamawa state among other projects sited in the state”.
“We also want to inform the petitioners and Nigerans that there is no abandoned projects in Jalingo, Sardauna, Zing and Ussa Local Government Areas of Taraba State”.
“All the allegatioons are fictitious, malicious and imaginations of the petitioners to achieve their selfish aim of blackmailing the commission through cheap publicity” .
They said “The petitioners were ignorant on how government agencies operate, they don’t know that all government agencies ministries and department have edicts that guide their establishment, including the mandate giving to them and clear guidelines on how they operate and they don’t know rules and regulations guiding their activities, and operations, they have the appropriate place to report all their activities, not to the unidentified agencies, but If they can walk on to the commission and seek to know the information about the projects they will know the position of everything once they agree to listen to them” .
“Our findings as reported confirmed to us that the commission gave them attention and they fixed appointment with one of the Directors of the commission on his way to attend official engagement outside their headquarters and advised them to come back he will attend to them when he returned but they decided to go to the media without cross checking the fact thinking that they will get cheap publicity and blackmail the commission” .
“Let the petitioners allow NEDC to develop the region. It is unfortunate some people want to bring the commission down with false claims and false accusations”.
