The Niger Delta
Development Commission, NDDC, has assured its contractors and consultants that
henceforth their payments will be paid promptly without unnecessary
bureaucratic bottlenecks.
The NDDC Acting
Executive Director Finance and Administration, EDFA, Mr. Chris Amadi, gave the
assurance when he paid a courtesy visit to the palace of Eze Apara Rebisi of
Port Harcourt, Eze Victor Woluchem II.
Mr. Amadi affirmed
that the NDDC director of finance had been charged to ensure that a more
efficient process was applied in paying for projects and meeting contractor
obligations.
He said: “In a couple
of days, we are going to start payment to contractors owed between N20million
and below. There will be no need for contractors and consultants to come to the
NDDC before they can get their payments. They can simply stay in their homes or
offices and give us the necessary information.”
The executive director
said that the new management had resolved to fully discharge the NDDC mandate
and intervene in specific projects that would impact on the lives of the
majority of the people. “We want to right some wrongs and ensure that never
again will our people suffer in the midst of plenty,” he said.
According to Mr.
Amadi, “Ikwere people are a dominant ethnic group in Rivers State. From
available statistics Ikwere has over 55 per cent of the voting population of
the state.” He regretted that the ethnic group, with high political
sensitivities, never had an opportunity to be in the board or executive level
of the NDDC, even from the days of the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development
Commission, OMPADEC.
He stated further: “My
appointment means a lot to the Ikwere people. They are very happy and I am also
happy and humbled. We are very grateful to our leader, Rt. Hon Rotimi Chibuike
Amaechi, for finding me worthy of recommendation to President Muhammadu Buhari
for this appointment.”
Eze Victor Woluchem,
received the NDDC Executive Director Finance and Administration in the company
of Nyenwali Isiokpo, Eze Blessing Nwagor and Nyenweli Akpor, Eze Aniele
Orlu-Iriebe.
The Port Harcourt
monarch congratulated Mr Amadi on his appointment, describing it as breaking
the glass ceiling for Ikwere people. He noted: “As the landlord of the NDDC
headquarters, I have been pained in the past because Ikwerre is the dominant
ethnic group in Rivers state and we have several oil wells. I don’t know why it
took so long to have an Ikwerre son in the executive management of NDDC.”
In his own remarks,
Eze Aniele Orlu-Iriebe, urged Ikwerre people to set politics aside and support
their son. He advised the NDDC to adopt a bottom up approach to development so
that communities would feel obliged to own the projects executed for them,
adding that the Commission should shun the practice of abandoning projects.
Earlier, the Ikwere
Chiefs and Elders Forum had gathered at a reception for the NDDC Executive
Director Finance and Administration at the Autograph Event centre in Port
Harcourt.
The
Chairman of the forum, Chief Sonny Dike, thanked President Buhari and the
Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi for elevating their son to an executive
position in NDDC. He appealed to Ikwere people to support their brother to
succeed, stating that “no one succeeds without the advice of elders.”
