Monarchs, constituents criticise Ekweremadu over constituency projects
- Ekweremadu's constituents have expressed concern about his constituency projects
- The constituents said they were perplexed to discover that most of the projects were either abandoned, poorly executed or yet to take off
- According to the chairman of Awgu traditional rulers council, Goddy Ekoh, time had come for the people to start holding their representatives accountable
Former deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, has come under criticism over abandoned projects in his constituency.
Legit.ng reports that residents of Awgu local government area of Enugu state said they were not happy over the abandonment of multiple constituency projects attracted to the area by Ekweremadu and his counterpart from the House of Representatives, Toby Okechukwu.
According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the constituents, including traditional rulers, town union presidents and others, spoke during the presentation of the Awgu community constituency project tracking report (2015–2018).
The report was sponsored by an Enugu-based non-governmental organisation, Divine Era Development and Social Rights Initiatives (DEDSRI), in partnership with Action Aid Nigeria (AAN) and with the support of UKaid.
Julius Azinkpali, the chairman of the community constituency project tracking committee, said that the projects were attracted by the former deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, and Toby Okechukwu, representing Aninri/Awgu/Oji River federal constituency.
He said that the committee was perplexed to discover that most of the projects were either abandoned, poorly executed or yet to take off.
Azinkpali spoke on how a project for the maintenance of youth development centre at Nsulu Games Village, worth N10 million, got abandoned.
“Nothing was done about the project after site clearance, even when some of the projects were indicated to have been completed.
“Other failed and abandoned projects in the area include a N30 million Ogbuma rural road. The project was captured twice by a government agency and ministry at N30 million each. Only about 10 per cent work was done,” he said.
He also listed other ill-fated projects to include Mgbowo rural road, Obuofia Ololi erosion control, Omuowo junction - Amata Itukwu erosion control and completion of erosion control at Umuhu Owelli.
Azinkpali said that his people were unhappy with the number of abandoned projects which were claimed to have been completed in the area.
He said that the community did not have any presence of completed projects.
Responding to the report, chairman of Awgu traditional rulers council, Goddy Ekoh, said that they would appraise the report and seek explanations from their representatives on the true situation.
Ekoh, who is also the traditional ruler of the community, said that time had come for the people to start holding their representatives accountable.
Earlier, the executive director, DEDSRI, Ogechukwu Enwelum, said that the constituency tracking project was under the strengthening citizens’ resistance against prevalence of corruption project.
According to the online medium, the special assistant to Ekweremadu on project, Jonathan Ivoke, however, said: "If you are tracking constituency projects, go and look for the documents. They are public documents.”
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that an investigation revealed that senators who served in the eight National Assembly (NASS) received N73.5 billion in four years as running cost for their offices without effectively retiring the expenditure.
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Source: Legit.ng
