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In the course of the past two years, we got a new brand of legislators in the National Assembly. In the Western Senatorial District, we have our irrepressible Dino Melaye , while we have the pragmatic and and indomitable Hon. Benjamin Ikani Okolo in the House of Representatives, moving motions with direct bearing on the lives of the people of KOGI state and other states at great personal risk.
The contract for the dredging of river Niger/Benue was awarded by the administration of late President Musa Yar Adua when the former Minister of Petroleum was the Minister of Transportation.
Under the corrupt administration of Goodluck Jonathan, the money meant for the dredging of the river Niger/Benue was misappropriated, allegedly diverted to the reclamation of polluted land in the Niger Delta after the death of President Yar Adua.
The money, tens if billions of naira, ostensibly diverted to land reclamation in the Niger Delta region, found its way into private pockets as the land reclamation in the Niger Delta was neither executed nor the dredging of the River Niger and Benue begun, leaving the states of Kogi, Benue, Edo, Adamawa, Anambra and Bayelsa in need of dredging that will bring economic fortunes to their people.
Individuals, not land reclamation in the Niger Delta, gulped the money meant for the project of the dredging of river Niger and Benue. Those special interests sat on the billions, and even the EFCC was oblivious of such stupendous sum voted for the project but corruptly diverted into private purses until Benjamin Ikani Okolo, a member of the House of Representatives, representing Dekina/Bassa federal constituency, at great personal risk, woke the EFCC, moved the conscience of the Green Chamber to perform this critical oversight function of vetting the all-important contract of dredging the Niger river that is hugely economically beneficial to our people.
The Federal government has resumed work because a committee to investigate the project of dredging of the Niger river invited contractors concerned after this important motion, contractors and Hon. Benjamin Ikani Okolo made representations, and the result of the investigation led the federal ministry of transportation to liaise with appropriate agency and work is resuming, thanks to Benjamin Ikani Okolo’s motion which was moved at great personal risk against the interests of deadly contractors.
Benjamin Ikani Okolo deserves commendation, not vilification by pests seeking to please their political paymasters.
– Realwon Emeje
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