By Alltimepost.com
Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe has come under serious condemnation by Edo State Government over a report credited to her to the effect that General Muhammadu Buhari’s Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) should be blamed for the abandoned Okpella Water Project and not the Jonathan administration.
In a press release signed on Thursday by the Special Adviser, Media and Public Affairs to Governor Oshiomhole, Prince Kassim Afebua, the government described the information as misleading and fraudulent when viewed against the background that PTF wound up business seventeen years ago.
Also, on the contrary, according to the statement, the said N800 million project was listed as started and completed by the Jonathan Administration in a publication entitled: “Sure & Steady Publication: Progress Report of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration”, Volume One.
Below is full text of the press release:
WATER RESOURCES MINISTER IS A DISAPPOINTMENT — EDO GOVERNMENT
We read with utter shock a report credited to the Honorable Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe to the effect that General Muhammadu Buhari’s PTF should be blamed for the abandoned Okpella Water Project and not the Jonathan administration.
For the records, General Buhari’s PTF wound up business 17 years ago. This response becomes very instructive to disabuse the minds of the people and put the records straight so that those who preside over our collective patrimony can be held accountable on issues of governance and public finance.
But for the kind of democracy we practice, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe would not have been fit to be appointed as Minister of such an important Ministry as Water Resources.
Distorting facts for the sake of politics and misleading members of the public to score cheap political points underscore one of the reasons why the PDP has led the country on the path of economic perfidy.
In a publication entitled: “Sure & Steady Publication: Progress Report of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration”, Volume One, it was copiously stated under the briefings of the Ministry of Water Resources [which has Mrs. Ochekpe’s picture generously displayed], that the Jonathan Administration did commence and complete the Okpella Water Scheme.
The information is contained on page 127 of the said publication and the cost of N800m boldly stated.
The same information was contained in the 2013 Calendar published by the Federal Ministry of Information where it proudly listed the Okpella Water Scheme, among others, as the achievements of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
Former Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku was also confronted by the Senate Committee on Information on the erroneous claim that the Okpella Water Scheme had been completed sometimes in February 2014.
Provoked by this sheer falsehood, members of Okpella Community under the auspices of the Okpella Progressive Union, (O.P.U) Northern Congress, wrote a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), late November 2013 to investigate and bring to book the contractor who claimed to have executed the said project, aware that nothing has been done.
The EFCC, in discharge of its responsibility, set up a panel of investigators in 2014 to look into the claims and found out on getting to Okpella that nothing has been done with respect to this project.
What was also curious was the fact that pipes that were hitherto supplied by previous administration meant for the water project were also carted away.
It took the personal intervention of the Comrade Governor to arrest the perennial stealing of the pipes that were initially deployed for the job.
As we speak, not a single pipe has been laid for the so-called water project. The question to ask the Minister is; if the project was abandoned by the PTF 17 years ago, how come it was listed as a completed project of the Water Resources Ministry she supervises and an achievement the administration President Jonathan?
We find it utterly disturbing and shameful that a Minister who should come out clean and apologize to the people of Okpella, the people of Edo State and indeed all Nigerians over this deliberate insult and falsehood, still has the guts to play ultra-cynical politics with a serious issue that has to do with squandering N800m of taxpayers’ money for a job not done, but glaringly advertised in the said publication as job already completed and listed as one of the achievements of President Jonathan.
To say the least, this is sheer fraud and a confirmation of the widely held assertion that corruption and official sleaze is fast eroding the fabric of our collective sufferance and driving us on the path of a failed state.
With a Minister like Mrs. Ochekpe, who deliberately distorts facts, one can understand why this government has been rotating on the same axis; some kind of motion without movement.
Rather than address the crux of the project abandonment, she tries to play the ostrich, by shifting the blame on PTF that has long wound up some 17 years ago. Shame on you, Madam Minister!
As a government that is truly representative of the people, we will continue to demand accountability from those who preside over our collective patrimony, and if need be, put a lie to their unsubstantiated claim with respect to projects awarded and abandoned.
The people of Edo State demand apology from the Honorable Minister of Water Resources for deliberately distorting facts for mere politics.
We also demand that the said project be delisted from the list of the so-called achievements of the Jonathan administration.
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