Akpabio, Others Left Over N612bn Abandoned, Terminated, Projects At NDDC– Report

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has abandoned or canceled projects worth over N612bn.4bn across the region over the years, according to a report.

The report was NDDC-PPP Committee with the title, ‘A Sea of Opportunities in the Niger Delta Region.’

The report made an assessment of projects that were either completed, abandoned, canceled, ongoing, and taken over by other agencies over the years.

The NDDC states are: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.

Senate President, Akpabio was the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs before he resigned in 2023 to contest for elective office and was succeeded by Umana Okon Umana.

Under Akpabio, there were allegations of corruption in the NDDC which led to a probe by the House of Representatives.

Based on the report, the NDDC abandoned or canceled 1,587 projects valued at N612.4bn.

About 1,262 projects in the NDDC region worth N407.75bn had been canceled, and 325 projects valued at N204.64bn are abandoned.

According to the NDDC-PPP report, a total of 7,140 NDDC projects worth N1.66tn which is 41.9 per cent of the total contract value in the NDDC area had been completed.

A total of 3,251 projects worth of N1.5tn are ongoing. It represents 19.1 per cent of the total contract worth being undertaken by the NDDC.

About 5,035 projects valued at N1.45tn or 29.5 per cent of the total contract were yet to be implemented.

The projects which have been taken over by other agencies were 32 valued at N21.55bn. It represents per cent of the total contract.

According to the report, the performance led to the NDDC to adopt a Public Private Partnership model.

The report noted, “It was against the above premise that the current board and management, in its bid to do things differently so as to effectively drive sustainable development in the region, decided to espouse the Public Private Partnership model to provide alternative sources of funding for key developmental projects and programmes.”

“Consequently, a management committee on public-private partnership, called the Public Private Partnership Committee, was constituted by the Managing Director/CEO on January 18, 2023.”

Former President Muhammadu Buhari had in October 2019 set up a three-man committee “to create the enabling environment for the forensic audit” that covers 18 years of NDDC’s operations between 2001- 2019.

The committee was later expanded to five in February 2020 by Buhari after the termination of the appointment of the then-acting Managing Director, Joy Nunieh. Nuhieh was later replaced by Kemebradikumo Pondei.