Delta communities lament abandoned projects

Some Delta State communities have raised the alarm over the number of abandoned projects in their vicinities.

A non-governmental organisation, Connected Development, had recently commenced the tracking of abandoned projects in the Ndokwa West Local Government Area of the state.

Some of the projects being tracked are the construction of a Multipurpose Hall at the School of Marine Technology Umusam-Ogbe awarded by the Niger Delta Development Commission, construction of Modern Civic Centre and Museum awarded by the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission in Isumpe community among others.

Speaking at a town hall meeting organised by CODE in collaboration with OXFAM at their respected communities, the Delta State Support Officer, Mr Ugochukwu Alexander, said the meeting was to get the community buy-in and permission from the people in tracking the projects.

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He said, “We cannot just enter the communities and start tracking these projects. That’s why we came to you having identified these projects.

“CODE is to amplify the communities’ voices and help to track these abandoned projects with a view to drawing the government’s attention to them.”

He noted that the government had continued approving new projects on a daily basis but failed to complete the already approved projects, explaining that factors that might contribute to abandoned projects include inflation, youth restiveness among others.

In his remark, the Palace Secretary of Utegbe-Ogbe Kingdom, Chief Igbe Benjamin, who lamented the rate of abandoned projects in their communities, commended CODE for intervention with a view to expediting completion of these projects.

He assured CODE full support of the community in providing necessary information required to track the projects, saying that the gesture would bring the desired development.

Also, the spokesman for the Umusam community, Ogwezi Alex and CDC Chairman of Umusam Mr Onyemeh Basil, and Mr. Akpati Ephraim of Isumpe community frowned upon the abandoned projects in their respective communities.