A socio-political group under the
aegis of Akwa Ibom Good Governance, has tackled the Senator representing Akwa
Ibom North-West, Godswill Akpabio, for the failure of the Ibom Science Project
to see the light of the day after about N5.3bn was invested in it.
Sen. Akpabio had cited alleged
mismanagement of the project’s fund and the proximity of its location to
erosion-prone environment as reasons for abandoning it.
But the group, in a press
statement on Wednesday signed by its president, Ubon Benjamin and secretary,
Effiom Antai, alleged that Akpabio failed to develop the park for political
reasons.
According to the statement,
“After thorough research and investigation we arrived at the following that
Akpabio deliberately and for political reasons failed to complete the
development of the state Science Park for which the state government has
committed much resources to and which had the capacity to have changed the face
of ICT and place the state at the forefront of ICT research and development in
the country
“The former Governor, now senator
mismanaged science equipment earlier acquired and installed by his predecessor,
Obong Victor Attah and commissioned by the then President of Nigeria, Olusegun
Obasanjo for 9 premier schools, located in different parts of the state to
boasting teaching and learning of science education at the secondary level and
act as spring board for an ICT and science revolution in Akwa Ibom state.”
The group also alleged that
Senator Akpabio failed to follow laid-down plans for the development of the
state University of Science and Technology, located at Ikot Akpandem. They said
he converted it from its specialised status to a conventional university,
thereby distorting the idea behind the setting up of the university.
Akpabio’s action, the group
claimed, had denied thousands of students and indigenes of the state an
opportunity to exploit the synergy that could have resulted from the capacities
of the two projects.
However, Senator Godswill
Akpabio’s media aide, Anietie Ekong, while reacting to the allegations, quoted
the Senator to have said that two things were wrong with the Science park
project.
The first was the location, which
according to him, “no matter the building you put there such a building is
threatened by erosion and it will cost you more to arrest this factor than the
cost of the project itself.”
Secondly, “The project is prone
to probing of the EFCC because the total cost of the project was N5.6 billion
and the Attah’s administration paid N5.3 billion upfront and the work done is
not up to N400 million.
“If a project is N5.6 billion and
the government paid N5.3 billion upfront you would expect the contractor to
move the project to a reasonable level.
“With N5.6 billion project and
N5.3 billion paid up front, I don’t think I should touch that project. You will
not advise me to touch that project unless the contractor can give account of
how he utilized the N5.3 billion he collected from Akwa Ibom state government
and why work done on round is not up to N300 million”, Akpabio was quoted to
have said.
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That guy called Akpabio na correct thief, now he has ran to APC for covering, useless party call APC harboring so so Thief yet they claim they are fighting corruption, I laugh!
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