By Chris Ochayi
ABUJA — THE hiccups which characterised the execution of some capital projects by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs has been blamed on the activities of members of the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta, who erroneously inserted their constituency projects in the 2009 budget in place of popular projects outlined for execution by the stakeholders in the region.

Apparently reacting to the recent remarks of non-performance of the ministry under Obong Ufot Ekaette as Minister, a presidential source said the lawmakers must be held responsible for any delay in execution of the capital projects in the region.

The source told Vanguard weekend in Abuja on the condition of anonymity that “it was greed and misplaced of priority on the part of some of the lawmakers to have ridiculously inserted their constituency projects in place of projects of national importance demanded by the stakeholders”.

Armed with some documents to buttress his point, the source disclosed that “a total of N48 billion was allocated for capital projects in the 2009 budget of the ministry out of which N28,422,832,802 was for the dualisation of the East-West road projects”.

He explained further that “the lawmakers in the course of preparing the budget lusciously appropriated the balance of N19.55 billion to cover 73 roads of the their constituency projects, which are completely at variance with the vision of the ministry to do mega projects for the region”.

He pointed that, “it is very ridiculous to allocate N150,000,000 and consultancy fee of N61,000,000 for a 25.35 kilometre road with such complex texture soil as Mbak-Atai in Itu Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State, estimated to cost N5,100,000,000.

Describing the 73 roads as unrealistic, the source alleged that the projects were inserted with ulterior motives. He added that this was counter productive.

The controversial projects include building internal 7.8 km road in Ahaoda West Local Government Area of Rivers State with the sum of N200,000,000; 2.5km Omelema-Agada 2 Road in Rivers with N100,000,000; 5.2km Amadiama-Abuloma road also in Rivers with N250,000,000

Others include a 21.9km Ekporakwa-Ukanafun-Ikot-Uko-Aba road in Akwa Ibom and Abia States with N500,000,000; 9.4km Ikot-Ekwere-Ndukpo Ise Ikot Eyo-Ikot Ntung Road with bridge in Akwa Ibom State with N250,000,000 and internal 25.35km road network in Mbak Itai LGA in Akwa Ibom State with N150,000,000, among about 36 other projects.