The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has alleged marginalisation of the zone in the just approved N3.9trillion road projects by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The national chairman of the association, Ambassador Godknows Igali, made the allegation on Friday in Abuja during a media briefing.
Igali alleged that out of the N3.9trillion approved road projects, only tangential one linking Benue state with Cross River state, amounting to N86billion was included, leaving the entire five other states in the zone out of the 26 projects cutting across 15 states.
“It is, indeed, troubling and shocking that out of the 26 major projects, covering 15 states, the only one nearest to the South-south of the country is the road connecting Benue state with Cross River state at the sum of 886 billion, with absolutely no allocation for any other road that runs through major parts of the South-south.
“For a part of the country that has continually suffered inexplicable infrastructural decay, this state of affairs has resulted in the inability of the citizens from the region to easily connect each other by road. This is very disturbing and totally unacceptable to the people of the Niger Delta,” he said.
He noted that even the East-west road which had become a metaphor for a failed project was still being carried out at snail pace, with no reasonable work going on, despite assurances by the Minister of Works of its speedy completion.
“This consistent pattern is a sad reminder that all the major ports in the area, Calabar, Onne, Port Harcourt, Warri are virtually abandoned with no plan in place for their rehabilitation, modernisation or upgrade,” he lamented.
He decried that if the observed anomaly is not corrected, it would be tantamount to “starving the goose that lays the golden egg,” which, according to him, was unacceptable to Niger Deltans.
He, however, commended Tinubu-led FEC for the planned robust road projects, but pleaded for sufficient inclusion of Niger Delta in them.