The Constituency Projects Tracking Group of ICPC has sealed a warehouse containing 1,078 water pumps meant for distribution to irrigation farmers in Kebbi Central Senatorial District.
The irrigation pumps were supplied since December 2019 under the constituency projects earmarked for the area.
An Investigation Officer in the team, Malam Sa’idu Yahaya, made the disclosure on Thursday in Birnin Kebbi, shortly after visiting various constituency projects in Kebbi Central.
Yahaya said that the warehouse would remain sealed until investigation was concluded on why the items were not distributed to the beneficiaries.
“The pumps were supplied by SMEDAN in December 2019, being a constituency project for Senator Adamu Aleiro, the Senator representing Kebbi Central Senatorial District.
“These items have been in the warehouse for over seven months now which should have since been distributed to irrigation farmers who are the beneficiaries in the state.
“The seized items are now under the custody of the Commission pending further directives.
“We are going to investigate the reason behind the failure to distribute them to the beneficiaries.
“The commission, after the investigation, will ensure that those items are distributed to expected beneficiaries,” he said.
Yahaya said that the exercise focused on investigating fraudulent procurement practices in the award of contracts for constituencies and its execution.
“Our other objectives are to make recoveries on projects or contracts confirmed to have been inflated or in which contractors underperformed or did not perform at all, and track contracting companies for all statutory compliance.”
According to him, the committee was also to monitor and track the performance of constituency projects and value of work done, identify the contractual sum and contractors, unearth payments made, identify the status and persons behind the projects.
The officer said the exercise was conducted in collaboration with Nigerian Institute of Quality Surveyors, NGOs and the media.
Also speaking, a team leader of the NGOs, Alhaji Ibrahim Ngaski, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Active Support for Rural People Initiative, said that the tracking of constituency projects is the responsibility of all Nigerians.
“We must hold our representatives accountable, because it’s tax payers money given to them to execute projects.
“We, the CSOs, are part of this process, and we represent voice of the voiceless and we must report any abnormalities in the course of execution these projects,” Ngaski said.
NAN reports that the team visited Shanga,Yelwa, Danko/Wasagu, Sakaba, Aleiro, Jega and Birnin Kebbi local government areas in Kebbi South and Central Senatorial Districts.
The first phase of the national exercise was conducted in 12 states by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission (ICPC) in 2019 and had earmarked 16 states for the second phase, including Kebbi, in 2020.
Other states in the second phase of the tracking are Cross River, Taraba, Ekiti, Ogun, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kwara, Jigawa, Abia, Delta, Ebonyi, Niger, Rivers, Oyo and Kaduna.(NAN)
