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Nwoko making a point at the Forum with DOPF

BY CHUKWUDI ABIANDU

Rt. Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko is worried by the absence of capacity representation for the people of Anioma nation of Delta state in the Senate.
To ease the situation, he is offering himself to fill the vacuum created so that the people can enjoy fruitful and capacity representation. “I will be the senator representing the Anioma people in the senate in 2018,” he told members of the Delta Online Publishers’ Forum (DOPF) in his country home in Idumuje-Ugboko last Sunday.
He wants to better the lives of Nigerians, not just Anioma people. The 56 years old former member of the House of Representatives with a record of good antecedents to show, congratulated the DOPF on the successful inauguration of the Forum and asked for the Forum’s support towards his senatorial election through the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Clearing the air on his relationship with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Prince Nwoko said he enjoys good relationship and called attention of the DOPF members to the fact that it was through the joint effort of himself and Dr. Kachukwu and ULO Consultants stepped in to help salvage the deplorable state of the Onicha-Ugbo-Idumuje-Ugboko Road that was hitherto a nightmare to travelers.
He said every effort made to get Senator Peter Nwaoboshi and Hon. Nicholas Mutu to help out with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to help repair the bad road failed. “Mutu and Nwaoboshi did nothing about the Onicha-Ugbo/Idumuje-Ugboko Road. NDDC said it doesn’t have money to do the work. So, we got ULo to move in, and we gave him assurance that he would be paid,” Nwoko said.
On the Paris Club money which became an issue in Nigeria, and the refund of which he was the main architect, he decried a situation where Governors wanted to deny him his entitlement after successfully working to achieve the refund from the Paris Club when his law firm went to court in Geneva to make a case that the deductions being made were illegal. “I got judgment in 2011 for refund of the money owed the local governments, and also got judgment in 2013 for refund of the money that was wrongly deducted from the states.
“The governors tried to pretend and went and brought in consultants. The idea was fraudulent and intended to shortchange us,” he stated. But the federal Government through the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice ignored the governors and gave him his due.