NINE years after the shoreline protection contract in Ayetoro, a coastal town in Ondo State was awarded and with more than N3 billion already paid as mobilization fees to the contractors, the project is yet to see the light of the day.
Conceived by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the project, initially billed to gulp N2.4 billion was awarded in 2004 to Messrs Gallet Nigeria Limited as the main contractors and the sum of N650 million was released as mobilization fees.
The project, which involved the construction of a two-kilometer stretch of embankment to shield the sprawling fishing community on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean from the raging sea, was however stalled for about four years allegedly on the lack of expertise and required equipment on the part of the major contractors.
Four years ago in 2009, the new board of the NDDC cancelled the earlier contract and re-awarded the project to another company, Dredging Atlantic Nigeria Limited, at a new cost of N6.5 billion out of which N2.5 billion was immediately paid as mobilization fees.
The project, which is expected to be completed within 18 months, has not taken off prompting residents of the community to allege at a press conference in Akure, Ondo State capital last week that NDDC and the contractors have entered unholy alliance to turn the project to a conduit pipe to siphon public funds into private pockets.
Spokesman of the community, Prince Dele Kudehinbu, who was flanked by other officials of the community union, said the residents, “who are at the mercy of the surging sea which from a distance of 1.5 kilometers away a few years ago is now 100 meters away”, have sent several letters to concerned bodies about the need to commence the project.
According to Kudehinbu who said he spoke on behalf of the community monarch, the Ogeloyinbo of Ayetoro, Oba Guard Asogbon, “we have written several letters to the NDDC and the contractors. When the Federal Government set up the Steve Oronsaye panel to look at some failing NDDC projects, we even presented a position paper to the panel but we have not heard anything.
“As a community, we are prepared to assist them achieve success in the implementation of the contract but what we are hearing is that they could not muster enough funds, we wonder how that happened eve when the initial fees have been paid, although the NDDC told us that they have enough money to complete the project.”
The Commissioner representing Ondo State on the NDDC board, Dele Omogbemi however said the commission does not award contract without having enough financial strength saying that the major problem with the project was lack of enough sand to fill the embankment because the Ayetoro beach, like the rest of Ondo shoreline, is muddy.
According to him, “the consultant who got the job identified a spot, did soil analysis and confirmed that the material will be suitable for the project. But unfortunately the quantity found there could not be enough to fill the space. Efforts are still on-going though.”
Omogbemi, who spoke to The Guardian while reacting to the allegations of the community, said, “we have gone over and over that place and we could not find suitable sand to fill the beach and reclaim it. The whole place is muddy but the current contractors, unlike the earlier ones, have the capacity because they have moved sophisticated equipments to site.
“The project is of utmost importance to the NDDC. That is why it was awarded twice. Ayetoro is located almost midway on the Ondo coastline and we are thinking of extending the embankment to both the east and the west after the completion of this project to make the entire Ondo coast free from ocean surge.”
The community however said the claim by Omogbemi that there was no sand for the project was not correct “because we took the contractors to a place called Igbo Aiku, which is made up of seven islands full of sands that can be evacuated for the project. But they said the place was a bit far. When they were doing their feasibility studies, did they not look for the most important ingredient they would need for the project?”
Reacting to this, Omogbemi said the location mentioned by the residents could not be assessed due to logistic and that what the residents should do is to assist the consultants and the commission in the new search for suitable sand.
Ayetoro, established as a socialist haven in 1947 by a group of fishermen clergy, is located about 60 kilometers east of Lagos and 60 kilometers from the mainland Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje local council of Ondo State.
Peopled by mainly Ugbo clan of the Ilaje ethnic group, the community was at the forefront of development in pre-Independence Nigeria and became the first settlement to have access to electricity in the entire Ondo Province of the then Western Nigeria.
Residents say the menace of sea incursion has adversely affected their socio-economic existence, as the entire mangrove vegetation within the environment has been salinated thereby destroying marine life and negatively affecting fishing activity, which is the mainstay of the local economy.
Besides, the entire area now lies under the sea level and the community had been forced to move location inland several times in the past, causing a lot of social and economic dislocation.
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