MILITANTS, suspected to be operatives of the Niger-Delta Freedom Force (NDDF), have blown up the country homes of two prominent politicians and contractors at Ofunama ward in Ovia South-West local government area of Edo State with dynamites, alleging that they diverted the money they collected from the council for the execution of projects in the ward to their private pockets. The home of one of the affected politicians was actually blown up with explosives while the roof of the other victim was pulled down.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that the politicians, believed to be Ijaws, had earlier enlisted the services of the militant group to bomb the Ovia South-West Local Government Secreteriat at Iguobazuwa on the grounds that the chairman of the council refused to pay them for the execution of the projects in the predominant Ijaw ward of Ofunama in Edo State.
The militants allegedly bought the idea but they were shocked when they saw some publications by the council, indicating that some water, classroom and health projects had been executed in the area by the council and the said politicians went with the chairman of the council to defend the projects at a ceremony in Abuja.
The leader of the NDDF confirmed to Sunday Vanguard when contacted, last night, that it was his men that destroyed the country homes of the politicians because they collected money and failed to execute the projects in the community.
His words, “Some political leaders in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State from Ofunma, Ajakurama and Gbeoba towns collaborated to submit papers in Abuja for the projects they did not execute and were deceiving us when we called them to show us the projects”.
Some of the projects, he said, were not on ground but which the council claimed to have executed through the politicians were the construction of a health post at Gbeoba, three classrooms and headmaster office at Abere ,Tolafa, Ajakurama , Binidogdogha, and Gbeoba; provision of Perkins generator and electrification of Abere community, rehabilitation of Nikorogha ��Ofunama road, supply of drugs and hospital equipment to health centers in the coastal communities in the ward, among other things.
A top politician from the area, however, told Sunday Vanguard that the disagreement between the militant group and the affected politicians bordered on the politics of the candidates that would represent the ward in the local government.
The NDDF leader, nevertheless, insisted that what the group did was to call the politicians to order and that if the politicians in the area did not take time, they would be dealt with. He asked why they should come and tell the militant group that they were being owed by the council when they had collected money for the projects and failed to do the jobs.
“How can anybody say that we are playing politics? Do we play politics with the lives of our people? Are these not the people who contacted us to burn down the council when when they know that they were lying to us?”, he said.
Oct212007