by crossriverwatch admin
Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma Egba this evening said the Akparabong Water project in Ikom Local Government in Cross River State has been duly completed.
The statement is coming against the background of complaints by some indigenes of Akparabong Community where Senator Ndoma hails from. They are accusing Emos Trade Investment, a company allegedly owned by the Senate
Leader of abandoning the contract after collecting millions from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
A concerned indigene of Akparabong, Mr. Kennedy Nsan had written what he called an appeal to all political stakeholders of Cross River State and the Governor, Sen. Liyel Imoke on the wall of the Cross River State Coalition for Change (CRSCFC) calling on the Senator to have a rethink about the abandoned project.
In the appeal Mr. Nsan said: “Please I write to appeal to our conscience and for someone who has Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba and the Governor’s ear to ask the Senate Leader, Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba to fix Akparabong Water Project that was awarded to his company, Emos Trade Investment, many years ago and has been abandoned. This is my earnest desire and I do not know how else to pass this message across other than here.
“I had called the distinguished Sen. Victor Ndoma-Egba exactly 100days after his first term in office; then I had his personal phone number, to help use his position as a senator to attract development to his village and my community; especially a water project that will serve the water needs of our people as this is critically lacking in our community during the dry seasons, and he promised he was going to do something about the lack of water in our community, but up till date, nothing has been done.
“Is it when my entire village would have been wipe-off from the planet earth that I’ll get positive response to this demand? When has the provision of portable water to a small community become rocket science? Even in some places in the north where their soil type does not support the drilling of boreholes, we have seen pipes laid several kilometres away from such locations just to get this all important resource to their people. What is different about ours?
“Earlier this year, I travelled home in April and met my dying aunt, down and critically ill with typhoid. My niece whose mother happens to be living in my house and many other people I took videos of in their sick beds almost dying, all confessed to me on camera that people had died as a result of the near epidemic that struck them in my village, Akaparabong towards the end of March this year. My aunt confessed to me while crying and pleading that something should be done urgently to salvage the situation otherwise danger looms. Should I then keep quiet after a stern warning from a victim who’s also a dying relative of mine? No, I don’t think so!
Another member of the Coalition who contributed to the thread said: “Please I beg of you good people of Cross River State to prevail on Ndoma-Egba to at least give my people detailed information as to why the water project awarded by NDDC, irrespective of the fact that it was awarded to his own company which is against the code of conduct for public office holders in our laws in Nigeria, has still not been executed several years after millions have been released for the project in question.”
But the Senator today in a post on the wall of the Coalition said the water project has been duly completed and portable water will start flowing in Akparabong in the next few days.
He said: “In the past few days, I have noticed with keen interest, the agitations of our people in respect of the Akparabong water project. I had chosen to keep mum on those agitations because there were some logistical delays in the completion of the project, and it is not in my nature to give excuses instead of giving results”.
“I am happy to state before this forum and my brothers and sisters from Akparabong that the water project has been duly completed. The reason why the completion was delayed this long instead of the initial December 2012 deadline was as a result of issues bordering on powering the water system. As I script these words now, a power generating plant has been mounted to power the water system, and in the next few days, portable water will run in Akparabong community.
“But I am not satisfied with powering a community water system with a generating set. Therefore, I have further initiated steps to install a transformer to power the system, which I expect should be delivered very soon. I thank everybody on this platform and those outside of the platform for their constructive contribution in our common goal of making government more accountable, which will in turn build a better society.
“However, I do have a humble request to make, and that has to do with the people taking ownership of the project. That way, we can all see the water system as belonging to each and every one of us, and not treat it as a community water system that is not in anybody’s care”.
Leave feedback about this