Rumuolumeni residents accuse Smith Construction of diverting N200m NDDC contract

Brave Dickson

Residents of Ochonma street in Rumuolumeni axis of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State have accused Smith Construction Nigeria Limited of diverting over 200 million naira road contract awarded by the Niger Delta Development Communication for the construction of their street road.

Chairman of the street, Chief Bobby Ochonma who hinted our correspondent said the contractor, Chief Earnest Egonu allegedly used the money for the building of a university in Imo State.

“The contractor has received over 200 million naira from NDDC for the construction of our street road.

“We staged a protest to NDDC state office at Olu Obasanjo road. We were informed that the contractor willfully diverted the money because the commission was owing him some money on about two contracts he did for them.

“It is unfortunate that our street road has remained deplorable till date,” Chief Ochonma said.

Our correspondent who visited the street reports that only both sides of the road have been dug and concretized for drainage

Though either NDDC or the contractor was yet to speak to TPCN on the allegation as efforts to reach them proved abortive.

A lot of abandoned road contracts awarded by NDDC across the nine states of its jurisdiction have been traced to shoddy deals.

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