The Special Adviser to Governor Nyesom Wike on Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Chief Aribitonye Mohammed Okiri has been described as a man that hides the truth, when he claimed that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC under Mrs. Ibim Semenitari had not executed any project in Rivers State.
This was contained in a release signed by Mr. Bekee Anyalewechi, Special Assistant (Media) to the Acting Managing Director of the NDDC, Mrs. Semenitari and made available to this weekly at the weekend, the SA on media, recalled that the Governor’s Aide on NDDC affairs on July 13, 2016 at the commissioning of the magnificent NDDC Rivers State office, completed by Mrs. Semenitari in Port Harcourt, commended NDDC for doing a great job as an interventionist agency.
According to Anyalewechi, the SA (Okiri) is only a bad workman quarreling with his tools”.
He revealed that Okiri submitted a letter to the Commission earlier this year, listing projects the Rivers State Government want included in the Commissions 2016 budget. The said letter, according to Anyalewechi was in a response to a correspondence to the Rivers State government by Mrs. Semenitari to the government of Rivers State, adding that “Semenitari had written to the nine (9) NDDC mandate state governors requesting their input to the 2016 budget’.
It would be recalled that the Special Adviser, SA to the Rivers Governor on NDDC Affairs through his Legal Assistant, Sokolo Solomon Esq. accused the Acting MD of NDDC, Mrs. Semenitari of non-performance.
According to the Governor’s Aide “the NDDC being an interventionist is mandated to work in synergy with the NDDC states towards the development of the region by putting up projects that will ameliorate the sufferings of the citizens of the state. When the Acting NDDC MD veers off tangent and uses the agency as a weapon to insult and malign the administration of the state then such action needs to be called to order. There is need to remind her to go back to her work details and kick start projects as we see none being embarked upon, what we hear instead are fabulous sums being paid out to contractors/politicians for work not done,” Okiri further accused her of secret recruitment of over 70 persons into the NDDC workforce with the caveat that they become members of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Mrs. Semenitari’s media aide tackled Okiri by saying that the NDDC is wholly under taking emergency road repairs on the Umuechem-Igwuruta road, and the Chokocho-Umuechem as well as the Eleme junction-Igbo-Etche-Chokocho road, it’s being done 100% by NDDC”.
Anyalewechi noted that at no time did Mrs. Semenitari employ 70 youths “secretly” as alleged by the governor’s aide.
“First, there is no employment going on in NDDC, where there is, there’s a procedure every prospective applicant must comply with. All these Mrs. Semenitari knows. So the SA (Okiri) lied with the intent to mislead the people. That at no time did she (Semenitari) act or work to undermine the Rivers State government, she is focused on her duty and will not concede to any form of intimidation.” ###
