BY EGUFE     YAFUGBORHI

WARRI—DELTA State chapter of the Host Communities of Nigeria, HOSTCOM, Oil and Gas, has expressed concern over alleged shoddy contracts and projects abandonment by Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC.

The body, at an executive meeting in Warri, urged the current board of DESOPADEC to embrace people-oriented projects, and ensure that those completed were put into use to benefit the public they were meant to serve.

In a communiqué at the end of the meeting by its Chairman, Dr. Peter Egedegbe, Delta HOSTCOM,  said: “From inception, the euphoria associated with the establishment of the commission was not sustained as its pioneer board delighted in misplaced projects conception and poor execution of same to the detriment of the oil producing communities.

“At the Afiesere community skills acquisition centre, training equipment for nine different trades are wasting away after DESOPADEC has spent N85 million to furnish the  centre with the defunct 13 percent Derivation Committee, which it replaced.

“Only God knows the level of wastage in Otu-Jeremi and other skills acquisition centres in DESOPADEC mandate areas. The sitting board should brace-up to these challenges and salvage this monumental waste and ensure that projects completed are put to maximum use.”