Communities affected by the construction of the Zungeru hydroelectric dam project in Niger State have called on the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, to probe into the high level of fraud in the payment of compensation to people whose lands were acquired for the construction of the project or be dragged to court.
The communities under the aegis of Shabazhe Youth Movement Association, in a letter to Fashola, accused officials of the ministry, as well as consultants handling matters of compensation to the landowners of outright refusal to pay the people despite huge sums of money released by government.
“Despite the huge sums of money released into the accounts of the two consulting firms, Mohammed & Co and George Nzei & Co, 95 percent of the claimants have not been paid, making us to be afraid that the money may have ended in private pockets of a few, but highly-placed individuals.
“We call on you to investigate this. We also enjoin you to find time to investigate bank accounts of the consulting firms at Skye Bank, for doing so will reveal that the manner of lodgments into those accounts is contrary to civil service general order that stipulates that public fund can only be paid into a private account in the manner the lodgments were made only if the payee provided a bank guarantee or bond in the like sum which did not happen in this case.
“As at now, no payment has been made in respect of houses and structures. Compensations for the land on which the people are to be settled have not been paid; ditto for the provision of social amenities, such as schools, roads etc. are yet to be provided at the so-called resettlement site.
“To us, nothing has been done in the matter of resettling the people whose lands were acquired for the dam.”
In the letter signed by Zubairu Umar Jiko, Chairman, Umar Usman Maikakaki, Secretary and four others, the association called on the minister to ensure that fair and adequate compensation for the lands acquired be paid as ordered by the court through their attorneys.
“Resettle the land owners, compel the Ministry to obey court orders in respect of this project and ensure independent auditing of all payments made to the duo of Messrs. Mohammed & Co. and Messrs. George Nzei and Co.
“We insist that all enumeration certificates and valuation reports submitted to the then Federal Ministry of Power by Messrs Mohammed & Co and Messrs George Nzei & Co. which formed the basis for the release of all monies into the consultants’ accounts should be made available to our attorneys for verification by us.
“All monies released to the consultants in the name of the Zungeru Dam project should be verified from the respective banks.”
The people lamented that similar calls were made in their earlier correspondence to the immediate past minister of the then Ministry of Power by their attorneys without any response.
They, however, gave an assurance that even though they have been pushed to the wall over the matter, they would, under no circumstance, take laws into their own hands.
“The Bakolori incident in Sokoto and its attendant catastrophe, though took place a long time ago, is still fresh in our memory”, the association said.
They accused the contractors handling the project of treating court orders that asked them to stop work with disdain and flagrant disrespect.
Justice Evuti, of the Niger State High Court, had, on March 20, 2015, granted the prayers of some of the land owners, asking the contractors to stop work until adequate compensation and resettlement had been carried out.
The association lamented that the nonchalant attitude of the contractors to the plight of the people was responsible for the death of one Mrs. Hassana Umaru, while running for shelter during blasts by the contractors.
“Your Ministry, on its part, has continued to treat letters from our attorneys with ignominy and total disrespect, despite evidence of acknowledgments. It is important to let you know at this juncture that the Ministry did not reply any of our letters and those of our attorneys, since the project started, preferring to deal with some self-serving powerful individuals”
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