Ephraim Inyangeyen is the Akwa Ibom State commissioner for works. Apart from superintending over the construction of several roads and bridges, he is considered to the governor’s right hand man. In this interview with ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, he gives reasons why the governor deserves to be re-elected and rejects insinuations that the governor entered into an agreement to serve a single term. Excerpts:
Few months to the election year, Akwa Ibom government is still constructing many roads, how long can this be sustained?
The governor believes that working for the people will determine his next level; he believes that his tomorrow will be determined by God and the people of Akwa Ibom State that is what he working for. I’ve found real and genuine Akwa Ibom people who truly tell me that I should pass on to the Governor that they never knew some roads that are done would ever be done. So the question is, “because of election, you suspend development in your state and where is that money going to?” Without anybody pressuring you, with what governor Udom Emmanuel has done, people will vote for him. So, to answer your question, we will remain on site, we will remain working because, Udom Emmanuel has brought a true change to the infrastructure dynamics of Akwa Ibom State and the people are happy for him. You cannot stop doing what is right because the people are appreciating what he is doing; he is not going to buy the heart of the people. What he has got to do is to sustain his good works and the people will decide. They will make their choices. I am told that some states are not paying salaries for months and apart from the social media where people say that salaries are not paid in Akwa Ibom, but I know that there is no month that by 24th to 25th that civil servants do not receive their salary in Akwa Ibom State.
About a year or two ago, there was a disagreement between your ministry and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over the execution of projects, how has this been sorted out?
Well, let me put it this way, we expected that NDDC would be coming to support the governor of Akwa Ibom State to add value to the lives of our people and we expected that they will tell the governor of Akwa Ibom State we want to help you here, where do you need help so that they will be no double effort but what we discovered and we said it was wrong. The governor goes to a community and makes pronouncement the following day NDDC will deploy equipment, sometimes without contract paper. Exactly what happened the on the Youth Avenue in Uyo metropolis, when the Accountant General of the state did thanksgiving, it was on a public holiday and he asked ministry of works that he wants that road to be done and on Wednesday morning we saw equipment being moved to the road and we asked ‘where is the contract paper?’ There was none, where is the design? Where will the drainage be? There was none. I put a call to the director in charge of project in Akwa Ibom, he said he has not awarded the contract, so it was a political thing and I said, you can’t do a road in Akwa Ibom without a design, without a contract, somebody we can hold and they left. NDDC is expected to complement the effort of the state government because this is our money, not NDDC’s money Akwa Ibom today being the highest oil producer gives the highest contribution to NDDC, so we would welcome those projects but not substandard project, not inferior quality project that every time rain comes it washes off, that money is recorded against our state in the books at the centre that 18 roads were done in Akwa Ibom and in the actual truth, no road was done and we will go back to square one, that is just the truth of it. About two months ago, the governor received a plea from the people of Edemeya (where the NDDC managing director comes from) that there was no road linking Edemeya and other communities. The governor directed me to visit the area. I was walking through a bush path to get to the area, out of the five or four wards of Edemeya. I got there and report back to the governor, that it is actually true that this area needs intervention. He directed that we should do a survey, we were still doing the survey, but what I heard when I came back was that NDDC has also sent people to go and do a survey. Why that particular one that has been lying down there till the governor spoke? And if we pull out of that project now, they will abandon it. It was the same with Abak hospital road that people were talking about. I went there, I went back to brief the governor, I was the one who told the governor, let us do the holistic thing and do the project within that area to collect the water, and do drainage that can receive the whole of that storm water and discharge it into the ravine. We were on the design when NDDC put up a sign post, and we said okay, good enough, and we left, it became a political issue and Abak people said they have been abandoned, that nobody cared for them, the ministry of works in Akwa Ibom State cannot afford, the governor would not even accept it, that we do a shoddy job. So the problem between Akwa Ibom State government and the NDDC is the nonexistent problem.
You are considered to be the governor’s right hand man. There is this talk that the Governor entered into an agreement with the Oron people to serve for only one term and that after that Oron people will do one term for the Eket Senatorial District to complete eight years. How true is this?
I want to be very emphatic here. Oron is in my senatorial district, the people are my kiths and kin. There must have been people in that meeting, a document must have been signed I may not have been there, where are these documents? Who were the people that were there that heard this discussion. Please, don’t forget at the time Governor Udom Emmanuel was emerging, Oron people had massively, through Oron Development Union had gone to the other camp. I will sincerely tell you that most of the people we were working with were the youth of Oro nation, all the think-tank of Oro nation went to the other camp. So who were the team that led this delegation, where did they meet, who did they discuss with and where is the document? I believe with all my heart that one thing Governor Udom Emmanuel will not do is to lie. People believe that in government you must lie to get things done but I am of a different school of thought that is why I am able to work freely with the Governor. The Governor calls it the way it is. There was no such understanding, talk less of documentation. If you tell me that the then governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio must have had some understanding or said something I may not argue because I was not there, Governor Udom Emmanuel was not there. But at the beginning or during the process leading to Udom Emmanuel being elected the governor, I will say it is a figment of imagination of those who are saying it.
There were reports that you were invited by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) due to your relationship with estate valuers or so; can you explain why you were invited?
I will do just that and I will take time to explain it. In the compensation payment component that we met when we came on board in 2015, I’ve said it time and time again, it was open to abuse in the sense that one man was the estate valuer, that same man would make payment. On that basis, the governor said it was open to abuse and directed that we decongest that arrangement. So what we did was break the system into three, have the estate valuer to value for government, after valuation, you bring the report to the ministry of works, we go out for physical verification, after the physical verification, the report is approved and given to a payment consultant. So if you had over valued a property for whatever reason, you will not enjoy the goodies because you are not going to be paid. You are not even associated with the payment. And if you are overvalued, what I have done that has brought a lot of attack which I don’t mind is that if we go out for the physical verification of every property, if there are five storey buildings and this one is N20 million, another is N5 million and another is N8 million, we will call to question and we will meet them and ask why is this storey building this high and this one too low and many times, the reconciliation has been in favour of government and once we take that report from you, you are no longer having anything to do with that document. If I don’t find a property physically standing as at the day of my verification, it is eliminated from the list. It is what I don’t remove that the payment consultant pays based on the valuation and we pay 90percent which is the net to the property owner. The 10percent is supposed to be kept for the property owner who has not given out power of attorney to anybody but we also discover that some property owners were deceived into giving out power of attorney. There are several others that three, four, five different people have the power of attorney and so in the circumstances we will suspend the payment because you don’t know who to pay to. Some people came back to withdraw their power of attorney so in that mixed up there were confusions and the ministry suspended that payment. We’ve even gone ahead in the last two months to set up a verification team by the valuers but they are yet to submit their report. So what we concentrated in paying was the net value to have right of way. These people that have been beneficiaries of the system have been shut down and they now are claiming that if we have N50 million to pay they should be prioritised and I don’t agree with that. I went to EFFC but by the time I gave the explanation and I told EFCC, you are not tax collectors. If anybody has any problem against government, he should go to court. We have done the best form of compensation payment, the most transparent in the history of this state and time will tell who is telling the truth.
Is the payment of compensation delaying the execution of projects?
No. Every project that the government has funded, the contractor always gives us a percentage to pay the compensation. What we have eliminated was that wholesome payment. Before now, money would be released to the contractor, he surrenders all of it and pays compensation for 10 kilometres and no money is left for construction and they would say that the road is abandoned. We now have a strategy that we will pay by installment. Even if you give me N5 million, I will not pay a whole sum as compensation. You give a contractor N5 million, the highest you can ask him to give is N250,000 because the other N4.75 million would not construct two kilometres of road, so why take the money and pay compensation and leave the road undone? What is more critical is not the compensation payment, it’s the construction of the road that is what people are going to use. So what we do is, we pay in alignment with the work done. Any road that the contractor has not exhausted the right of way earlier provided, we don’t pay any new one. So any road that construction is not going on means that government for that period has not funded that project and therefore there will be no compensation payment on that road but as soon as government funds that project, we take a small percentage of that money to pay compensation and the work must finish on the portion that has been paid for. So there are expectations and there are false expectations where people celebrate when their houses are on the right of way, they believe that they will make a whole lot of money.
A company, VKS is handling the road from Nkana in Etinan to Awa in ONNA , it cuts across Afaha group of villages, the drainage has been made but the road seemed to have been abandoned, what is happening?
That community is not being fair to the government. The governor doesn’t just sit over that community, the sits over the entire state. The governor rations the money into several projects. The governor initiated that project and it’s at 60percent completion so that community should rather be thanking governor for God to provide more and it will be completed. They wouldn’t think that because governor has come to that place to start that job every other project because it is not in his neighborhood should be suspended. It is not done that way. This governor is the governor of the entire Akwa Ibom People. When I leave here now, I’m going to Obot Okara, I am going to Nto Edino, those are the places we have to get to in the outermost part of the state, they are parts of this state. So for the people of Awa group of villages to think that the governor who has come and has done 60percent will not finish the road in their area and they are angry, I think they are not being fair. Let me also tell you this, there is a major trunk road that if it is not completed, the other ones inside will not have value. Which one is more important, Etinan-Ndon-Eyo road or the Awa village road? The governor is a strategic thinker and he believes that if we can do Ikot Oku Ikono- Etinan road, Etinan-Ndon Eyo road, Etinan-Eket road to open up the main system, the other small alignment can take place. So the governor right now is concentrating on finishing Uyo-Ikot Ekpene road rather than go into one village to do one small road. How do you even access the road when the main alignment has not been done? If the governor leaves Etinan-Ndon Eyo that is going to be the centre piece to open up the entire state to construct the Awa-Nkana road it would not make sense that you drive in a bush track and enter a tarred road in your village. Delay for about three or four months does not mean that it has been abandoned. Every project on road started by this government will be completed, they could be delayed because of funding programme but believe me, the governor is determined to get all of them to their completion.
