By Daniel Abia, Port Harcourt

No fewer than 953 sundry projects initiated by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, are abandoned across Rivers State over the years.

Disclosing this much, the representative of Rivers State on the Board of NDDC, Chief Tony Okocha revealed that the commission has a total of 953 abandoned projects in the state.

To this end, Okocha said the current NDDC Board was making frantic efforts to change the negative narrative about the interventionist agency by the people of the Niger Delta region.

Okocha spoke on Tuesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital during an interactive session with members of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers (RSCTR).

“It was the decision of the Board that we will lead a different example. We have started the process of a change, which also conforms with Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda for Nigeria.

“In my study, it was clear to me that Rivers State is number two, in terms of states that have abandoned projects. Rivers State has 953 abandoned NDDC projects. These projects are dotted and around the nooks and crannies of the state.

“We thought we could open up this interaction to ask ourselves and indeed ask our fathers, what happened? Because what happened was before we came. We are barely two months old. So, what happened? Why are these projects there uncompleted?

“My investigation again showed three things. The first is that some of these projects were abandoned because of the frieghting nature of the NDDC Board membership, that some managing directors or boards come, they award their own contracts.

“One of the things that had bedevilled this developmental stride is the inconsistency of government. Three months down the line, a board is set up and after three months, the same board is dissolved. Within the period they existed, they would have awarded contracts to people. Sometimes, people take their own money, go to the field and don’t get their monies paid.”

On his part, the executive director, finance and administration of the Commission, EDFA, Hon Boma Iyaye assured that the new board would it’s best the better the lots of the Niger Delta and Rivers State in particular.

Speaking earlier, the chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers, Ohna Sergeant Awuse, thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the quality of persons he appointed into the NDDC Board.

The Monarch expressed belief that the two representatives of the state on the board of the Commission “will do very well by impacting on the people of the state”.