Reps committee to probe contractors over abandoned projects at MAN
Akpan Umoh, Uyo
The House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration has vowed to investigate all contractors over abandoned projects at the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron.
The committee also expressed sadness that the statutory 5 per cent allocation from NIMASA has not been paid for upward of one year, and therefore resolved to summon the agency’s leadership for an explanation.
The Chairman of the committee, Khadijah Bukar Ibrahim said this during the committee oversight function to the Maritime Academy of Nigeria in Oron on Thursday.
Ibrahim said that all contractors who abandoned projects from the inception of the institution would be investigated and made to account for every Kobo collected to serve as a deterrent to others.
Ibrahim, who was represented by the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Mr Uduak Ududoh (PDP-Akwa Ibom), said that the committee would write to the institution to get back to Abuja.
The chairman said that the practice of abandoning projects after taxpayers’ money had been paid must not be allowed to continue.
“We will look back, to investigate the projects even from the inception of the school and so, when we get back to Abuja.
“We will meet as a committee and mandate the clerk to the institution because we cannot continue this way.
“They (contractors) are Nigerians, and if they have the opportunity, they will embezzle the money and abandon the projects. So, when we get back, we will look at these things, it is Nigeria money that is involved,” Ibrahim said.
The chairman also mandated the Rector of the Academy, Commodore Duja Emmanuel Effedua (rtd) to expose those staff behind the leakages he talked about in his presentation.
Ibrahim said that if they are not exposed and appropriate action is not taken against them, it would not serve as a deterrent to others.
“You also talked about leakages, most of the leakages that happened did not happen outside but inside.
“I am very sure that most of the Staff you came to inherit are still in this institution, you have to expose them because if you don’t expose them and appropriate action is not taken against them, it will not serve as a deterrent to others.”
Earlier the Rector, Effedua had, in his presentation before the committee, decried the state of infrastructure decay in the academy at the time he assumed duty.
Effedua added that the situation was such that the International Maritime Organisation threatened to delist Nigeria as a place where Maritime students should be trained.
He said that this happened because people who had the opportunity to run the affairs of the academy were not doing what they ought to do.
