Nigeria Content Online

The foundation laying ceremony of a primary school in Ologbo,
Ikoba-Okha local government council, Edo State, embarked upon by the member
representing Ikpoba-Okha/Egor federal constituency, Ifaluyi Isibor, was
yesterday disrupted by angry youths.

The youths were led by a middle aged man simply identified as
Jackson, after they complained that they were not happy with the level of
representation so far given by the lawmaker and they were not consulted before
the decision to build a block of three classrooms was taken.

They said that the project was coming at the end of the tenure
of Mr. Isibor, a development they said was to hoodwink them to vote for him for
re-election.

The angry youths were eventually pacified by leaders of the
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the area, including the former state
representative in the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC),
Matthew Iduorinyemkemwen, who came to the scene to allow the ceremony continue.

Communication problem

This development is just 48 hours after the state governor,
Adams Oshiomhole, called on all PDP federal lawmakers in the state to account
for constituency projects allocated to them. The youths forced the advanced
party of Isibor to leave the place, and even forcefully dismantled the canopies
mounted for the ceremony.

But when the ceremony eventually started about two hours behind
schedule, Mr. Isibor said he identified the school to be in a very dilapidated
state and overcrowded during his campaign, and therefore, made it one of his
constituency projects.

He said the three blocks of classrooms would be “furnished with
chairs and headmaster’s office. We are also going to put aluminum doors and
windows, and the roofing will be aluminum sheets. This is the fourth school
that I am building and added to other projects that we have attracted to this
constituency.”

The project, he said, would cost N8.7 million, and is expected
to be completed in three months.

Isibor attributed the obstruction of the ceremony to communication gap: “It
was a communication problem. Some groups said they were not informed; they
believed that what I have done for the constituency deserves a higher ovation.
When I arrived, they were quarreling that their women were not told. That some
of them have gone to the market, and it will look as if they were not
interested in my project. That was exactly the issue, so we pleaded with them.”