PDP Chieftain Faults Approval of N621bn for NNPC to Construct Roads

By Sylvester Idowu

A chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has faulted the federal government’s approval of N621billion for the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to construct and rehabilitate 20 federal roads across the country.
He equally condemned the sharing patterns of the roads to be constructed between the North and Southern part of the country.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo last Wednesday gave the approval for the construction and rehabilitation.
At the end of the council meeting, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who said the move was a strategic intervention under the Federal Government Road Infrastructure and Refreshment Tax Credit Scheme, disclosed that the selected 21 roads cover 1804.6km.

Reacting to the development while responding to question from journalists yesterday, Onuesoke, a former governorship aspirant in Delta State, said it does not make sense for NNPC to spend N621.2billion tax liabilities on road projects, wondering where the money will come from and how it will be accounted for.
He queried the freedom NNPC now has to dip it hands into the oil revenue and use funds generated for the country to build roads rather than paying into the country’s account and allow the Federal Ministry of Works to perform its constitutional role.
According to him, “It will appear smartly in their books again as a cost in year of expenditure. What is going on here? Road construction or reconstruction is for the Ministry of Works and Housing. Let’s borrow ourselves some sense. This is subject to plenty of fraud.

“If the Ministry of Works and Housing needs money, they should collect it from the treasury through budgeting not from NNPC. If the corporation wants to contribute to national development, let them pay tax and do CSR with transparency. Has the NNPC taken over the functions of the Federal Ministry of Work?”

The chairman of DAS Energy Services in Warri, who is among those clamoring for the privatisation of NNPC because of lack of performance, expressed disgust that out of the 1804.6 km of road to be constructed by NNPC, only 288.22 km are is allocated to the South while1,516.38 km of roads will be built in the North.

Onuesoke said: “This is nothing more than robbing Peter to pay Shehu. How justified is it to vote more than 70 percent of the funds for Northern roads? It is shocking that only two roads (114 km) were selected in the South while nine roads (993.45 km) were selected in the North Central alone. Using geopolitical zones to share what belongs to the South (oil) and allowing northern states to sell their minerals for the benefits of their own people is just not acceptable.”