According to Grassroots Publishers, Ojougboh remains a qualified Deltan from an oil producing area.This was contained in a statement signed by its National President, Chief Duke Okirika and made available to journalists in Warri, Delta State.
The Grassroots Publishers Group also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for reshuffling the Interim Management Committee of NDDC and leaving very competent hands like Dr. Cairo Ojougboh to hold the position of the Executive Director of Projects in order to achieve the needed goals.
The statement reads in parts; “We are Grassroots Publishers working to strengthening Democratic values, promotion of peaceful coexistence and good governance through performance awareness creation. We therefore after carefully following the performances of the Acting Executive Director Projects, NDDC, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh and other members of the Interim
Board; we hereby pass a vote of confidence on him (Ojougboh) for exposing corrupt practices and correcting the wrongs in the Commission. So many leakages have been exposed in within a short period of the Interim Board”.
We all know that the NDDC was sinking and would have been killed and buried, but for the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari, who added saved the commission from the burden of over trading, bloated contracts and other sharp practices.
It is on record that in 2017, the NDDC awarded a total of 201 emergency contracts valued at N100,396,879,001.06; in 2018, a total 1,057 emergency contracts valued at N162,688,289,333.05 were awarded; and in just seven months of 2019, it awarded a total 1,921 emergency contracts valued at N1,070,249,631,757.70.
“We are talking about a total of over N1.3 trillion in less than three years. The yearly budget of the NDDC is hardly above 400 billion and a situation where contracts that do not qualify for emergencies were fraudulently awarded to over one trillion naira valued in less than one year amounts to not only stealing from the pulpit but stealing the entire pulpit,” some of the awards were not only spurious but criminal, as available records showed that most of the awards were not backed by budget, bills of engineering measurement and drawings.“They were just open cheques for contractors and their collaborators to fill in at the nearest banks.
Grassroots Publishers while noting that they have evidence that Dr. Cairo Ojougboh has a good background in Engineering and as a former member of House of Representative,GNPN warned detractors to desist from those cheap blackmail on Dr. Cairo Ojougboh with plans to slow down the speedy performances of the Interim Board of NDDC.