A civic tech organisation, Monitoring Transparency in Nigeria Governance (MonITNG), has called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate a dam project in Edo State that has received repeated budgetary allocations without execution since 2017.
The project, titled “Construction of Earth Dam and Water Scheme for Otuo and District, Owan East Local Government Area,” was first funded with N500 million in 2017 and slated for completion in 2020. However, despite recurring allocations, it remains abandoned.
MonITNG noted that the project has been shuffled between ministries, starting with the Ministry of Water Resources through the Benin Owena River Basin Development Authority and later the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, yet nothing has been delivered.
In the 2025 federal budget, the same project resurfaced with a fresh allocation of N1 billion, despite nearly eight years of non-implementation. Communities in Otuo and surrounding areas, the group lamented, still rely on contaminated streams for drinking water and lack irrigation support for agriculture, worsening poverty and health risks.
The group recalled that the project had previously been flagged by the ICPC Constituency Project Monitoring Group, yet accountability concerns persist.
“This raises critical questions: why does the same project continue to resurface without progress, and who benefits from this cycle of repeated funding?” MonITNG asked. “It is unacceptable that billions of naira are earmarked for a project that exists only on paper.”
The organisation urged ICPC and EFCC to urgently track all allocations from 2017 to 2025, investigate why the project has never been executed, and hold those responsible accountable.
MonITNG stressed that the case underscores the need for stronger transparency and accountability in public spending. “Nigerians deserve functional infrastructure and safe water, not recycled budget provisions that fail communities year after year,” the group said.