By Kennedy Mbele.
The Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Hajiya Ireti Heebah Kingibe, has requested for details of intervention projects carried out in her constituency, Abuja.
She said she would get to the bottom of the situation whereby intervention projects in her zone, FCT, would be treated as completed without evidence of their existence, let alone completion. “I will get to the bottom of this, no matter what it takes. She said.
The lawmaker who spoke at a meeting of Senate Committee on Water Resources, explained that Zonal Intervention Projects in FCT cannot be said to have been executed without her knowledge or proof of existence.
At the meeting in Abuja, Minister of Water Resources, Engineer Joseph Utsef, presented a report on the activities of his ministry in the FCT.
This was in response to Senator Kingibe’s complaint that the DG, Niger Basin Development Authority is not giving her information on projects claimed to have been carried out in the constituency she represents.
Addressing the committee, Kingibe frowned at the DG’s decision to deny the public information on details of intervention projects carried in Abuja.
She insisted that the committee must see the projects, numbering 14, explaining that all the projects she carried out since she became a senator were properly documented, except those 14 which she said she was not aware of.
“He cannot do any intervention project and I have no knowledge, no documentation” She said.
In a video clip Kingibe explained that the Director General, DG, Niger Basin Development Authority said all the 14 projects have been totally completed, stressing that he knows where the projects are located and as as such, has to show them to the house as no one else knows their locations.
Specifically, the Senator wants to see where the following intervention projects were executed in FCT:
- Roads constructions
- Construction of perimeter fence and furnishing of health centres across FCT.
- Renovation of public structures in FCT
- Provision of boreholes across 3 area councils in FCT, among others.
The lawmaker also insisted that the claim for supply of fertilizers to farmers in FCT, has to be authenticated with a list of beneficiaries and their locations.
Responding, the minister apologized for his inability to produce the information demanded. He appealed to the house to allow him follow up with the matter and produce all the needed information, shortly.
In attendance were the Minister of Water resources, Engineer Joseph Utsef, Permanent Secretary, heads of departments in the ministry, representatives of relevant agencies, as well as members of the Senate Committee on Water Resources, led by Senator Kenneth Eze, who warned against misappropriation of the nation’s resources, which he said the National Assembly will not tolerate.
