The controversial dissolution of the Board of Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC, by Delta State House of Assembly for non performance at its resumed sitting Wednesday September 12 at Asaba after its recess took Deltans by storm, but it did not go down without wagging tongues, Fresh Angle investigations can reveal.
A Commissioner in the dissolved board whose name was not mentioned was quoted to have described the position of the House in a media report as a smoke screen. The report further quoted the commissioner of accusing the lawmakers of asking for contracts in the commission without being ready to follow due process.
The position of the State House of Assembly which is being viewed by most Deltans as open admittance of failure by the three arms of government in Delta State is coming few months after the same lawmakers went on indefinite strike, asking the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to direct all contractors handling major projects in the state to go back to site and complete their projects before they will resume sitting.
The lawmakers ably led by the ambitious Speaker, Rt. Hon .Victor Ochei who is eyeing Delta Government house come 2015 told the world then that they could not face their constituencies as a result of lack of infrastructural development across the 25 local governments in the state. But Deltans were surprised when they made a U-turn and resumed sitting while projects for which they went on strike remain incomplete till date and no word has been heard from the House in that regard.
Speculations have been rife in the state that the lawmakers went on recess after they allegedly received their share of a purported N2 billion Ecological fund given to the state by the federal government.
While there was no official reaction from the state government regarding the purported dissolution of DESOPADEC by the House of Assembly as at the time of filing this report, an aide to the governor who spoke exclusively to Fresh Angle on the development described it as great, even as he will not want to comment on the alleged inadequate funding of the commission by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.
Fresh Angle can report that matters got to a head recently when the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Frank Omare directed authorities of Warri South Local Government Council to remove all waste bins positioned by the commission on some streets in Warri due to over-flowing waste.
The council immediately responded by evacuating the bins and took them to its main secretariat, only for an official of the commission to absolve the contractor handling the refuse disposal of blame. The DESOPADEC official was said to have explained that the commission hasn’t paid the contractor for four months, hence the stoppage of work by workers of the contracting firm.
Members of the dissolved board only recently called for bidding of some projects it intends to give out in an advertorial since their inauguration August 2011. A move that is interpreted to mean lack of fund or clear vision to carry out its primary responsibility of developing the oil producing communities.
While there are reasons to believe that there is more to the controversial dissolution of the commission by the State House of Assembly, some political gladiators believe the executive is actually the target of the lawmakers.
It would be recalled that the State House of Assembly unanimously announced the dissolution of DESOPADEC and advised the state governor to submit fresh names for ratification.
Copyright: Fresh Angle International (www.freshangleng.com)
ISSN 2354 - 4104
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