Sylvester Nsa, immediate past commissioner and state coordinator in charge of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) representing Cross River State, has joined calls by the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade and other stakeholder that the NDDC Act and master plan be reviewed to accommodate disadvantaged states like Cross River over the loss of Bakassi and its oil wells.
Nsa in a statement issued in Calabar, the state capital, and made available to newsmen on Friday, said despite the inadequacies of the NDDC Act that inhibit Cross River State in its sharing formula, NDDC in the state under his leadership had been able to attract 61 projects, executed and completed, while 34 projects were currently ongoing at various locations across the state.
A breakdown of the projects by NDDC in the state shows that 20 emergency repairs roads had been commissioned while 41 are waiting commissioning.
According to Nsa, contractors have been mobilised to site for the construction of six bridges and roads at various locations while four contractors are yet to be mobilised to site.
The former commissioner said out of a total of 119 projects approved by the board of NDDC for the state, 61 had been completed and 34 were ongoing and 20 already commissioned in the last four years.
Nsa, who was reacting to the press statement issued by the state governor, Ben Ayade, when its acting managing director Nelson Brambaifa paid him a courtesy call, said the governor was in right because the current master plan played more emphasis on oil producing states of which Cross River had been deleted and placed on a disadvantage position because of the loss of its oil wells.
“I shared the concern of other state holder and that of the executive Governor of Cross River state for an urgent review of the Act so as to allow Cross River State benefit equally in terms of projects allocation and 13% derivation across board.
“We lost Bakassi and 76 oil wells due to no fault of ours, it was a decision taken by the international court of justice at the Haque and the Federal Government of Nigeria, rather than compensate the state for the loss, we are being punished through the Act,” he said
