Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
The rich get richer while the poor get poorer, with the rich stealing from the poor is the situation that best describes Delta State, as exclusive documents in our possession revealed.
One of such documents titled ‘Extracts of fixed assets (Mass Transit Boats)- Directorate of Transport’ detailed how the State Government bought over five hundred boats in 2012, to solve the transportation problem in the Riverine areas of Delta State.
SecretReporters gathered that the Ministry of Transport decided to sell the boats to Deltans but this was hijacked by top political office holders and top private shots. They were meant to make a minimum deposit of N1 million to get the boat and pay the balance subsequently.
The then Deputy Speaker, Mr Basil Ganagana, who is currently running for Federal House of Representatives to represent Bomadi/Patani took four of such boats worth N48 million and deposited only N4 million. He took two Waterbus115HP with engine numbers DTSG/RMT/120 and DTSG/RMT/122 with same numbers appearing for the Chasis. He also bolted away with two Passport1985HP. Till date, he has not paid the balance of N44 million.
Ayiri Emami, who was then a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member before running to the All Progressive Congress (APC) immediately after Mr Muhammadu Buhari won, also took Passports boat worth N28 million for his A&E Petrol located at Ubeji and never made any payment till date.
An alleged sponsor of the Aladje/Ogbejoh war, who served as the Commissioner for Environment, where he diverted over N2 billion, Mr Frank Omare; brazenly took five of such expensive boats for himself, totaling N62 million without depositing a penny and has not paid for any of them, revealed a source within the Ministry of Transport. He’s currently warming up to go to the House of Assembly.
A serving member of the Delta State House of Assembly, Mr Michael Diden aka Ejele, was not left out in the bazaar, as he also got two Waterbus boats of N20 million and also refused to pay for it. He’s gearing up to run for Delta South Senatorial district.
Former PDP State Chairman, Edwin Uzor, who collected N400 million Diezani funds for 2015 election and was caught on camera taking the money from Fidelity Bank, also got a boat worth N10 million, but deposited only N1 million, and refused to pay the balance.
The list which has 130 names also had the former Deputy Governor, Amos Utuama, as a beneficiary of the fraud.
The boats which cost the State Government over N2.1 billion were shared among themselves, without efforts by the Government to make them pay back.
Efforts to reach Ganagana, Ejele and others were not successful, as they didn’t pick their calls, nor respond to our text messages.
Note: Just like the boats were shared, so were the buses bought by the government also shared. SecretReporters will publish the names of the beneficiaries in our next expose.
