By Zik Gbemre

We had preempted that the jaundiced, self-mocking ‘Whistle Blowing’ policy Delta State Government, under Sheriff Oborevwori, introduced to cover its deliberate propensity to execute shoddy contracts across the state would stage laughable scenes.

We pictured situations where officeholders in a position to see the execution of state contracts would play whistle-blowers to pass the blame for the shoddiness they, by their greed, induced on ongoing projects under their care.

Monday 10 Match, 2025 we were vindicated. Some holier than thou Commissioner representing Isoko on the Board of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Chief Victor Egbo, blew the whistle, inadvertently on self.

Chief Egbo had visited St. Michael’s College to inspect an ongoing project to remodel a block of classrooms. He only just found out that the contractor assigned, Kenoba Construction Company, had roofed the structure in a substandard fashion.

To pass the blame, according to a Niger Delta Today report, Victor Egbo is accusing the school Principal, “Mrs. Bridget Onojerame, of allegedly receiving a kickback from a contractor to deliver a substandard project.

“Egbo accused Mrs. Onojerame and the company, Kenoba Construction Company, handling the project of allegedly conniving to use refurbished roofing sheets for the classroom building project.

“He said that the two had allegedly agreed that the contractor would pay the Principal a certain sum of money in exchange for her approval of the use of refurbished roofing sheets for the project.

“He observed that the roofing materials used were substandard, as 80% of the roofing sheets had been refurbished, leading to a poor-quality installation. He further alleged the Principal was reportedly given the remaining 20% of roofing sheets for her personal use.”

To ensure that he gives the hapless School Principal enough bad name to pin misconduct entirely on the wrong person, NDT further reported, “Compounding the situation, Mrs. Onojerame was accused of disrespecting the commissioner, as well as making threatening remarks and asserting nothing would be done to her despite her actions.

“Outraged by the situation, Chief Victor Egbo reached out to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of DESOPADEC, Chief Festus Ochonogor, to arrange a meeting with all parties involved for questioning.”

Again, this is a case of another officeholder playing whistle-blower, judge, and prosecutor on his own where he is guilty of promoting shoddy projects.

We have said stakeholders, residents, including principals in communities where projects are sited have a moral duty to monitor and ensure quality execution of such projects but that cannot be stretched to making them take responsibility for substandard execution of such projects.

The reason is simple: it takes a project supervisor with details of the contract and project specifications to fully evaluate and monitor to determine the quality assurance in the project.

A few questions for the shameless DESOPADEC Commissioner. You accuse a school Principal of collecting kickback from the contractor for her approval to do a substandard job. Is the Principal the assigned Supervising Engineer on the project?

You accuse her of collecting ‘refurbished’ roofing sheets’ to grant contractor approval to use ‘refurbished proofing sheets to execute the contract. Is the Principal exposed to the contract document and the Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation (BEME)? Does she know the project specs to know which materials the contractor was supposed to use?

We do not know the context of Egbo’s ‘refurbished’, but we want to believe he meant reusing the worn-out roof removed from the old structure. Whatever he meant, how did he come up with the arithmetic of knowing the exact per-share ratio to arrive at the contractor using 80% ‘refurbished’ roof and the Principal having 20%?

While it was easy for him to blame a hapless school Principal for his failure, Victor Egbo after inspecting a road project at the Mechanic Village, Oleh being executed by the same contractor, Kenoba Construction Company, also “expressed disappointment in the contractor’s poor quality of work, noting that the commission will not accept such level of job.”

So we ask Egbo again, was it the School Principal who also collected kickback from Kenoba Construction Company to equally do a bad job on the road project? Nonsense.

For us, Gov Oborevwori should sanction Egbo for the negligence of duty and incapacity as a Commissioner Representing the Isoko nation. He and the official project supervisor on the school and road projects he passed as substandard should be called into question for abdicating their responsibility and looking for an innocent school Principal to scapegoat.

When we say Delta State Government has made a culture of delivering substandard projects, we say it with all sense of integrity. And Isoko has a reputation for accommodating the most shoddy of state projects.

Under his administration, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa awarded N1.5 billion to PORTPLUS Limited, a registered marine service company. It became known as the Kolanut project as it was awarded on compassionate grounds to the marine firm’s owner.

So shoddily executed by the incompetent contractor, the project became Okowa’s emblem of shoddy contracts, and out of not wanting to take the blame for Okowa’s misconduct, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori has refused to commission that project to date.

Shame On Chief Victor Egbo!
Shame On DESOPADEC!
Shame on Gov Oborevwori!

Zik Gbemre
March 17,2025

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