Report indicts NDDC on Edo road projects

A report by a technical committee to review road projects executed by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Edo State has indicted the commission for executing substandard jobs.
It said the roads were below required standards and added that a total 101 roads out of the 248 roads awarded by the NDDC has been executed.
The report said work was yet to commence on 86 road projects while many of the roads already awarded were found abandoned.
Chairman of the committee, Mr Erasmus Osahon, who spoke while submitting the committee’s report to Governor Godwin Obaseki, said the NDDC, started awarding road projects in the state in 2004.
Osahon stated that the committee in the course of the assignment ascertained the total number of roads executed by the NDDC, stage of accomplishment, quality of work done, and make appropriate recommendation.
Among the recommendations were review of road projects, prompt payment of contractors and training of engineers.
He said such would help to stem the rate of abandonment of road projects and recommended that the commission should liaise with the state ministry of works to avoid duplication of projects and double expenditure.
Governor Obaseki expressed disappointment with the quality of work of many roads projects executed by the NDDC.
Obaseki opined that intervention institutions like the NDDC ought to ensure that only tested and trustworthy contractors were selected to handle road projects.
According to him, “NDDC cannot be an appellation for substandard work, and the quality of their projects should improve.
“We have to, from now on, be involved in their projects and in the selection of contractors to work in our state.
“We want to understand why inferior materials are used for an NDDC project. From now on, we want to insist that the same quality of materials we use on our roads are the same NDDC contractors who operate in the state must use.
“We have problems with the designs of their roads as reported by the committee; how can we design roads in a rain forest to have very narrow drains and expect that those roads will last?
“Even from the design stage, we want to be involved. We will also like to interrogate all the contractors that have worked with us, we are imploring that NDDC gives the required cooperation.”