The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in its March 2017 Tender Advertisement (find here) included the Construction of Block of Classrooms at Ogbomoide Primary School, which is located along Osunbor Road, Iruekpen. The community is in Esan West Local Government Area of Edo State. The school has a total number of 616 pupils (male and female) currently enrolled in it. Like every other conventional primary school, Ogbomoide Primary School has Kindergarten 1 – 3 (A and B) and Primary 1 – 6 (A and B) classes but due to insufficient classrooms these classes are merged.

We have initiated #EducateOgbomoide in other to track the Construction of additional classrooms at the Primary School in Ogbomoide. We invite the public to join in the campaign today as we foray into Imo  State to #EducateOgbomoide Primary School in order to ensure that children in the community are able to have access to conducive and suitable classrooms with improved facilities which will aid learning.

Join us through http://www.ifollowthemoney.org

NDDC, the Implementing Agency Petitioned to ICPC, EFCC, Auditor-General and the National Assembly

27 February 2018: Having not heard from the NDDC on details sought regarding the project implementation such as the contract award documents, successful contractor details, actual project amount and bill of quantities, as well as confirming that no sort of implementation had started at the community, we wrote a petition to the ICPC, EFCC, Auditor-General of the Federation and the National Assembly (Senate and House of Reps) to conduct investigation over the project.

Community Commits To Follow the Money 

Ogbomoide Town hall Meeting

07 September 2017: The had its townhall meeting in Ogbomoide, Iruekpen to engage the community and intimate them on the steps taken on the advocacy and tracking of the funds meant for the school. The Town hall meeting took place at the Ogbomoide Community town hall at 12 noon. The community promised to follow up on all the projects in the tender that is meant for the community and also perform oversight when it starts.

Full report here

Community Champions Eager to Start Chapter in Edo State 

Community Champions with FTM Team After the Strategic Meeting

06 September 2017: The Team from Abuja took out time to meet the Community Champions in the State, for an open discussion to further elaborate on the movement with emphasis on the work process and how to effectively FollowTheMoney. The session further shaped the thoughts on having a State Chapter in the State to enable them effectively perform oversight on the various development components in the state.

Edo State SUBEB Promised to Collaborate WIth CODE on Monitoring and Evaluation

06 September 2017: During the meeting by the Team with the state SUBEB, the Chairman was not on seat as the team met with a Senior Director in charge of Constructions, he identified the school with various documents and the various gaps in the structure that was built as far back as 2014 was not furnished hence children sat on bare floor. SUBEB promised to partner with CODE moving forward to ensure monitoring and evaluation when the next work plan is out.

Find the report here.

Edo NDDC is Unaware of The 2017 NDDC Projects in The State

06 September 2017: The team paid a courtesy visit to the Commissioner of NDDC Edo State, the visit was supposed to be for information sharing on the Tender Document which clearly indicated the school reconstruction at Ogbomoide. The team met his absence but met with some members of the staff (Mr. Johnson- a Civil Engineer and Mr. Ben) at the Commission, the meeting did not address all the questions asked but clearly stated that the state knew nothing about the Tender. Hence no information on contracting.

Find the meeting report here.

Courtesy Visit Letter Was Sent to The Commissioner of Edo NDDC

29 August 2017: A Letter of courtesy visit was sent to the office of the Edo State NDDC Commissioner at Benin, with a strong commitment from the office to welcome the Team for the visit on information sharing between NDDC Edo State and Connected Development.

Letter can be accessed here

Prospective Students was Rejected Due to Moribund Educational Facilities

14/07/2017: The FTM team arrived Ogbomoide for a community outreach to Ogbomoide Primary School.  The Headmaster, Mr. Jacob Okhuelegbe in his speech stated that the school had to reject some prospective pupils due to the insufficient infrastructure to cater for the educational needs of the existing pupils.

The School currently has 4 blocks of classrooms with three classes per block out of which 2 blocks are completely moribund and out of use. Full Report here.

Community Head Confirms he is Not Aware of the Project 

14 July 2017: The Odionwere (head of the community), revealed that they have never heard of the tender or seen any contractor. The tender was made available to them with a highlight on the concerned project.

They are happy and expectant as Odionwere (Andrew Umatta) said in the local dialect that these are the kind of projects they need and its execution is necessary to enable the school properly manage both existing and new pupils.

Assistant Headmistress says School Requires More Than Blocks of Classrooms

Ogbomoide Pupils Sitting on the Floor

14 July 2017: The Assistant headmistress (Mrs. Dim A. O) emphasized the need for new blocks of classrooms as one of the school buildings have been completely evacuated due to extreme dilapidation. On a tour of the school, it was noted that pupils require more than just blocks of classrooms as they lack chairs and tables in the functional 2 blocks of classrooms left. We also noticed that dilapidation was not only in classrooms but also in the toilet facilities which are as old as the school itself.

Community member promise to synergize with Follow the Money in Actualizing the Project

 

Follow the Money Team During the Community Outreach

14 July 2017: Some of the teachers (Mrs. Ogbekhilo E.O and Mr. Odia Joseph) also spoke to the followthemoney community reporter on the need for a swift intervention and said in their words “If more organizations like Connected Development exist nobody would loot Government funds ”. The School Authority and the Community are open for a synergy with CODE and all stakeholders concerned to ensure the actualization of the project.

No Response to Freedom of Information Request from NDDC

17 July 2017: The FTM team sent out an FOI to the Headquarters of NDDC in Portharcourt on the construction of a block of classrooms at Ogbomoide Primary School, seeking details on the contracts. We are yet to receive a response from the commission as regards the freedom of information letter we sent.