Niger Assembly, Accuses Ministry Of Works Of Incompetency

Olabode Adaramola, Niger State

Members of  the Niger state House Committee on works have accused the state Hon. Commissioner of Works, Engnr.  Muhammed Ibrahim Panti and    his team of incompetency in the discharge of their duties  of the ministry’s work.

The State Assembly members also accused them of discrepancies in documents presented before the committee in preparation for it’s oversite function.

Chairman of the Committee and member representing Lavun constituency, Hon. Jubril Ndagi Baba, pointed out that the documents presented on some of the projects across the state were world apart as if they were not from the same ministry.

Members of the committee who contributed to the discussion noted that the explanations by the Commissioner and the permanent Secretary,  suggested that the documents were forged since the Commissioner explained that he cannot agree with what was on the documents.

Three conflicting documents on the same matter were presented before the house and still doesn’t contain information needed for the oversight  function of the committee.

Hon. Jibril Baba,  while addressing the Commissioner and his team expressed disappointment saying,  “it took the ministry over one month to present the documents and still have issues on the papers.

He added  that “this only shows sign of incompetencies and it is an indication that there would be issues on the projects.”

On the renovation of the Government House, Minna, that  the committee was amazed that the ministry was not in charge of the project, thereby questioning the accountability of the state government over the project.

The committee noted that they were not out to witch hunt anybody but only doing what they were elected to do as people’s representatives,  adding that “Government House is being renovated with tax payers money and people must know what is going on with the project and how their money is being spent.”

The committee also frowned at the poor handling of the Minna-Lambatta road,  by the ministry, saying, “the poorly constructed road had made the state lose huge sums  of money spent on the road to federal government.

Responding, the Commissioner admitted that the documents before the committee was not correct and up to date and therefore pleaded for more time to put their house in order as a ministry’, stressing that  he doesn’t have confidence in the documents before the committee.

The Commissioner and his team were expected back in the house on Thursday.