Ijaw Community Wants 11-year Road Project Revisited

The Ijaw community of Gelegele in Ovia Northeast local government area of Edo State has called on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to revisit the Udo-Ufunoma-Enikura-Gwilebu Road project abandoned over 11 years ago.

The people said no fewer than 100 communities have been cutoff over the non-completion of the road.

The community called out the interventionist agency for leaving out oil-producing communities, particularly Gelegele, from it several intervention projects.

The chairman of Gelegele Executive Council, Mr Omaghomi Olu-Derimon, stated this while speaking with newsmen at the weekend in Benin City.

The chairman lamented that the communities that lay the “golden egg” were being neglected in favour of those without crude oil.

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He stressed that this act has almost destroyed the reason that birthed the interventionist agency.

Olu-Derimon, however, commended the present board of the NDDC for taking the right step to correct the abnormally.

“I think over time, before the NDDC, we have the OMPADEC. We’ve been having some form of intervention agencies which are meant to probably give the government some kind of support to develop the oil communities and oil producing states.

“I think the NDDC has not actually met its major target, its major aim of developing, or in the overall development of the Niger Delta or of the South-South states because if you compare the amount of money that have come into this region via NDDC, I think the gap is just too wide.

“But from what I see from the current administration of the NDDC, there is a kind of difference. I think we can see a kind of step-up from what we’ve seen before.

“We can see a focus in the NDDC. But the area where I really want to baer my mind in the present NDDC is for them to bring development down to the oil-producing communities, not just the states, the local governments or the communities.

“If you find out why we had restiveness in the Niger Delta, it was because the communities that produce the oil were abandoned and that is exactly what is happening to our community, Gelegele community.

“As we speak, we don’t have the direct impact of NDDC in our community but you will find same in abundance in areas that do not have direct bearing with the agency,” he stated.

On the abandoned road project, Olu-Derimon said, “Udo-Ufunoma-Enikura-Gwilebu road has been abandoned since 2015-2014 by the NDDC.

“That road is a gateway to the Riverine communities from Ovia to West, and over 100 communities have been imported negatively with its non-completion.

“The people of these communities go through harrowing experiences during the rainy season and we appeal to the NDDC and the state government to see to its completion.”