Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

 

Ex-militant leaders from the nine States of the Niger Delta region have cried out to the Interim Management Committee of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over delayed contracts payments amid threats of property forfeiture to banks.

According to them they have been subjected to untold hardship due to non-payment after certified completion for contracts executed

The Ex-militant leaders under the aegis of the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI) called on the NDDC to help stop the psychological pains being inflicted on contractors and commence the payment of contractors who have completed their projects in accordance with their contractual obligations, especially the ” emergency contracts”.

 

The LPCDI, in a statement issued yesterday and signed by its National President, Chief Reuben C.Wilson and Secretary, Nature Kieghe, stated that their call on the NDDC IMC is premised on the untold hardship being experienced by the contractors, who have faithfully and diligently executed their contracts but are not paid due to the on-going forensic Audit of the operations of the NDDC.

 

“The contractors that are mostly affected are the ones that have completed the ” emergency contracts” awarded by the Ekere Nsima administration. Most of them borrowed money from the banks with their houses as collaterals to finance the execution of the ” emergency contracts ”.

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“We are therefore calling on the Interim Management Committee to commence payment of such contractors to avoid banks seizing their houses used as collaterals. The unnecessary delay of their payments will have huge negative effects on the execution of NDDC projects in the future  because it will certainly discourage other contractors from going the extra mile to complete such projects, which shall occasion more abandoned and sub-standard projects in the Niger Delta Region” the duo stated in the statement.

 

The militants further appealed to members of the National Assembly not to constitute themselves as impediments to the accelerated development of the Niger Delta Region by frustrating and politicising their responsibilities toward the NDDC.

They implore the federal legislators to use their oversight functions and budgetary powers to facilitate the development of the Niger Delta Region through the NDDC rather than using such powers to frustrate the smooth operations of the NDDC.

 

The statement read in part “We are therefore, appealing to such members of the National Assembly to desist from such unpatriotic and negative acts and use their constitutional powers to facilitate the development of the Niger Delta Region via the NDDC.  This is very imperative because if the development of the Niger Delta Region is not given priority attention the existing fragile peace in the region may not be sustained for long.”