Abia Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, says he is ready to access resources of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to enhance the development of the state.

Ikpeazu, who received in audience the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs in Umuahia yesterday, lamented that the intervention of NDDC in Abia has not been palatable.

He informed the committee that there was a subsisting court case against the state by an NDDC contractor handling the Obohia road in Aba where the state government wanted to intervene.

He also told his guests that most federal roads leading into Aba, including Port Harcourt Road, and the Aba - Ikot Ekpene road, were completely impassable, pointing out that this has serious economic and health consequences.

The governor called on NDDC to take states into confidence in the conceptualization of projects to enable the states to make inputs into such projects.

He commended the Committee for taking the pains to strive to get first-hand information from the grassroots for whom NDDC projects were meant, noting that with such effort, NDDC budget would have the required impact on the grassroots.

Earlier, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Peter Nwoboshi, had said the committee was in the state to carry out holistic investigation into complaints that money being voted for the development of the Niger Delta through NDDC does not get to the people.

According to him while in the state, they would inspect NDDC projects and examine their impact on the state, as well as to interact with the government to enable the committee to make input on priorities, for inclusion in the 2016 budget.