Exclusive: How Delta Govt ‘Wasted’ N11bn On Osubi Airport

The Delta State Government under the administration of immediate past governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan reportedly ‘wasted’ a whopping sum of N11billion naira on Osubi Airstrip, BigPen Online can report.

This followed moves by the then Uduaghan’s administration to upgrade the airstrip, located near Warri to ‘International Airport’ that would accommodate larger aircrafts.

BigPen Online recalls that while briefing newsmen, the then Commissioner for Information, Barr. Chike Ogeah had said that the State Executive Council (during Uduaghan’s tenure) had approved N37.3 billion for the upgrade of the airstrip which entailed the construction of a car park, a 4km runway and other ancillary facilities.

However, as at when the contract was awarded and the contractor mobilised with N11bn, the state government was yet to get clearance from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, thus the contract ended abruptly after the state government had ‘wasted’ close to N11 billion naira on the project.

Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa who confirmed this during an exclusive interview with PUNCH Newspaper, however mentioned that the contract was awarded for ‘N41bn’ but failed due to non clearance from Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority.

Hear him, “on the issue of the Osubi airport, I mean the second runway project, the state government meant well but I think that they didn’t follow the due process.

“The government awarded a contract of N41bn to a firm for the construction of a runway and other auxiliary facilities and mobilised the contractor with close to N11bn without clearance from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority and that was a huge challenge.

“I think that their projection was that the state government will buy the airport from the original owners. But somebody else succeeded in buying off the airport and it meant that our state was either doing the runway for the buyer while we could not do our own runway.

“Because there was no way NCAA was going to approve a second airport just adjacent another. The state government was denied further approval. What it technically meant was that the contract came to an end even when we had spent close to N11bn.

Speaking against claims that his administration had stopped work on the Osubi Airstrip ostensibly because of ‘cold war’ between him and his predecessor, Governor Okowa said, “That had nothing to do with me because that refusal had come in before I came in as the governor of the state. You see a whole lot of issues that people raise because they don’t understand the issues in government.

“It is not for every single project you come out to make a lot of noise; it will look like I had something against the government of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan. I believe that he had the right intentions for the place but apparently, those that pushed out the project did not realise that they needed to get the approval of the NCAA first”.

Fielding questions from PUNCH, he however said that the cancellations of some projects awarded by his predecessor before he was elected in 2015, like the Edumarshal, Ogwashi-Uku Resort Park and the Effurun-Warri BRT among others was for public interest and not because of any claimed ‘political cold war’ between him and Uduaghan.

“I think the idea of a cold war is the imagination of some people. I don’t think there is any cold war between me and former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. If I have cause to seek information or advice from him, he does give to me. I relate with him and even the governor before him, James Ibori.

“As to the projects you talked about, it depends on whether they fit into our programmes. I did not wish to continue with the concept of Edumarshall because there are other ways to ensure that children go to school. We can educate the parents, encourage society to realise that education is important, and improve the standard of education which we have been doing.

“If the parents are better informed on the need to train their children, they wouldn’t force them to go to school through the Edumarshal corps. Various stakeholders complained about the BRT project, which was ongoing at the Warri-Effurun Road, when I resumed. I also got protest letters from the traditional institutions and the National Union of Road Transport Workers, complaining about the project.

“I felt it was necessary to look into the issues. Having looked into the issues, I had to set up a committee to go and host a town hall meeting with the people. The majority of the people insisted that the project was not in their best interest.

“Of course, the BRT project was done in such a way that the whole thing looked clumsy. We do not have a wider road space, the available space was reconstructed and it caused a lot of traffic jam. In governance, you cannot force things down the throat of the people. We stopped the project when the majority of opinion insisted that we should stop it.

“The fact is that we believe that we needed to listen to the complaints of the people and that a BRT on that road may not have been fully well thought-out in the design that was presented to us. That was not a political decision. It was a decision based on the reality on the ground and the wishes of the people.

“Entirely, I don’t think there is any cold war between us. Whatever projects we may have stopped may have been from the challenge resulting from the project and its design or the fact that we may not have funds at the moment to continue with the projects.

Written by Joe Ogbodu

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