Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson on Tuesday expressed
\ndispleasure over the absence of federal projects in the state,
\nparticularly in the area of road infrastructure, in spite of the state\u2019s
\ndecades of contributions to the economic wellbeing of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Governor Dickson made the assertion, when a delegation of the Senate
\nCommittee on Works, led its Vice Chairman, Senator Clifford Odia paid him
\na courtesy visit in Government House, Yenagoa.<\/p>\n
While lamenting that, Bayelsa has the least kilometre of federal roads, he
\npointed out that, the Federal Government has utilized resources from the
\nstate and the Niger Delta to develop major capital cities in the country.<\/p>\n
According to Governor Dickson, crude oil terminals in locations such as
\nBrass in Bayelsa, Bonny (Rivers) and Forcados (Delta) where oil is lifted
\ndaily are not accessible by road.<\/p>\n
To this end, the Governor called on the National Assembly to spearhead the
\non-going efforts on restructuring the country to achieve an equity, peace,
\nstability, justice and sustainable development.<\/p>\n
His words: \u2018\u2019You have seen for yourselves. All you have talked about is
\nthe Yenegwe-Kolo road which has been on the drawing board since the time
\nof Gen. Yakubu Gowon, even before the civil war. Let me use this
\nopportunity to once again, remind the Senate of the pitiable situation of
\nour people and to draw attention to that and see what the National
\nAssembly can do not just by way of exercising your powers of
\nappropriation, but more fundamentally, to support the on-going calls for
\nthe re-organization of our country to make it more equitable, stable and
\npeaceful. \u2019We all want a united, big and strong Nigeria but a Nigeria of
\ntruth, justice and compassion because if we don\u2019t take the right step to
\nmake a peaceful change possible now, a generation is coming up that may
\nmake violent change inevitable, which is not what we want.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Works, Senator
\nClifford Odia, said they were in the state to inspect all federal
\nprojects, with a view to assessing their level of completion.<\/p>\n
Senator Odia, however, expressed dismay over the poor quality and slow
\npace of work on the dualization of the Yenegwe-Kolo road project, which
\nhas achieved just a dysmal 47%, even though, it was re-awarded since 2009.<\/p>\n
He said, \u2018\u2019We are here to inspect federal roads in Bayelsa and we have
\nbeen able to visit a few of such roads. We visited the site of the
\ndualization of the Yenigwe-Kolo road and what we found there to say the
\nleast, was very embarrassing. That project was awarded in 2009 but only
\nabout 47% of the project has been completed and the quality of work done
\nfalls below standard.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Senator Odia assured that, the committee would institute a panel to
\ninvestigate the structural integrity of the road and ensure that
\nprovisions are made for the Nembe-Brass road in the 2018 budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the absence of federal projects in the state, particularly in the area of road infrastructure, in spite of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n