Nigeria, Jan. 5 -- While hundreds of NDDC projects remain abandoned and uncompleted across the oil-producing states, partly due to non-release of funds, the agency 'abandoned' $70 million in a bank for over a decade, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, said.

A series of investigations by PREMIUM TIMES on the status of projects by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) show that many remain abandoned in states like Imo, Akwa Ibom and Cross River, leaving many residents frustrated.

The abandoned projects, which range from health centres to schools, commenced as far back 2006, with some of the contractors saying they were abandoned because the NDDC refused to pay them.

While such projects lingered, however, the a...