President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday morning commissioned the completed NDDC headquarters in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, after alleged corruption led to its abandonment for decades.
Recall that until the completion of the project, the NDDC was paying 200 million naira annually for its rented headquarters.
In 1994, the Groundbreaking for the NDDC Headquarters was carried out – it was OMPADEC at the time.
Twenty six (26) years, and 17 CEOs later, it has fallen on President Buhari to complete and commission the building.
“Mr. President gave marching orders that this project must be completed… It is another milestone which evidences the commitment of Mr President to the development of Nigeria, particularly the Niger Delta region.”, said minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio.
“For 15 years the rented NDDC HQ was not connected to national grid, so they can give out contracts for diesel. That became a racket on its own”, Godswill Akpabio added.
Akpabio noted that when he visited the NDDC headquarters project site after he became Niger Delta Minister in 2019, he was told that no Minister – or even CEO/Administrator – has ever visited the site since 1996.
Some of federal HQ buildings which have been under construction over an average of 15 years which President Buhari is completing or has completed are the 17-storey NCDMB building, Bayelsa, the Nigeria Immigration service Headquarters, the Department of petroleum resources HQ building Abuja, the EFCC Headquarters and the NDDC headquarters, Rivers State.
