Miffed by the poor state of the Ogoni axis of the East-West Road in Rivers State, the House of Representatives Committee on Host Communities, has lent its voice to the need for the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio to return the construction of the road project to the Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF) where it was originally placed by the Federal Government to facilitate its timely execution and completion.
This is even as the committee has promised to support the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) on the ongoing Ogoni clean-up project and other interventionist activities embarked upon by the agency to improve the wellbeing of the people.
The committee, which gave this indication during an oversight visit to some project sites in Eleme and Gokana Local Government Areas on Wednesday, strongly condemned the deplorable condition of the Ogoni axis of the East-West Road, and directed Senator Akpabio to return the road project to the IDF without further delay.
Speaking to newsmen on behalf of the committee members in Eleme, Chairman of the committee and member representing Khana/Gokana Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Dumnamene Dekor said the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs does not have the capacity to handle the road project, and therefore, directed the Minister to return it to the IDF forthwith.
He wondered why the road project was in the first place removed from the IDF by the Minister, stressing that the people of the Niger Delta deserve some measure of respect from the Federal Government, particularly in terms of giving them what rightly belongs to them and ameliorating their sufferings.
Dekor decried the poor state of the Ogoni axis of the East-West Road, irrespective of the fact that huge revenue resources are coming from the area, going by the calibre of companies and federal agencies and instructions located within the area.
The lawmaker noted that he had personally led protest over the deplorable state of the road, and regretted that nothing concrete was still being done by the Federal Government to change the trend, contending that the situation, as observed by the committee members during the oversight tour, wherein trailers and other heavy duty trucks were frequently falling on the road, was indicative of the number of lives being lost on the road on a daily basis.
Consequent upon this, Dekor affirmed that the East-West Road as it is today is terribly bad, and urged the Federal Government to do something urgently to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.
He placed on record that the road is an important carriageway leading to several states and communities within the Niger Delta region and even beyond, and therefore, contended that it deserves priority attention from the Federal Government.
Dekor, however, commended the new HYPREP team led by Prof. Philip Shekwolo for the good works it is doing in Ogoniland, and expressed delight that the committee members were able to visit some ongoing water project sites as well as clean-up sites in the area.
He assured that the committee would do what is right legislatively to ensure that the remediation project succeeds.
Dekor particularly praised the Rivers State Government and HYPREP for the massive water project in Eleme, and expressed the hope that the facility would be made functional soonest in order to provide potable drinking water to Ogoni people.
On his part, HYPREP’s Director of Operations, who is also overseeing the Coordinating Office in Port Harcourt, Prof. Philip Shekwolo thanked members of the committee for the oversight visit, and assured that the agency would continue to discharge its core mandate of improving the wellbeing including the health and other needs of the Ogoni people.
He said HYPREP had embarked on several interventionist activities and projects, geared towards improving the living conditions of the people, and listed the Centre of Excellence project, provision of training to the people, among other initiatives as some of the bold steps taken by the agency to better the lot of the people.
The committee members also paid a courtesy visit to the Chairman of Gokana Local Government Area,Hon Confidence Deko who assured that the council would work with the lawmakers to ensure that Ogoni people are given the best in the clean-up project, asserting that the local government was the worst hit by environmental degradation.
He, however, appealed to HYPREP to make its presence felt more in the local government, and assured of his administration’s readiness to work with it to give Ogoni people all that they deserve in the remediation project.
The committee visit ongoing clean-up sites in Kpor and B-Dere Communities in Gokana Local Government Area and the water project site in Eleme Local Government Area.

By: Donatus Ebi