Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri will consolidate the development of the state, if re-elected on November 11, his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, has said.
He said the governor would not relax on his laurels in road infrastructures, security, education, and health, among others, noting that his Principal means well for the overall development of the state.
Alabra spoke yesterday at an interactive session with reporters.
The CPS said the governor, would continue with the urban renewal programme he had already begun.
According to Alabrah, part of the urban renewal programme is to light up the state capital and by so doing reduce crimes and discourage every form of criminal activities.
Speaking further, he said because of the governor’s commitment to creating more access roads, Yenagoa, the state capital, had been expanded and linked with other rural areas.
Alabrah said: “Talking about roads, the government of Senator Douye Diri is creating roads to rural areas through the three senatorial roads.
“The over 60-year-old abandoned Yenagoa/Oporoma road is now at an advanced stage of completion because people can now drive to the Angiama community. You can imagine community folks seeing cars being driven into their community for the first time. You see, the people were overjoyed and this is courtesy of Governor Douye Diri.
“Oporoma has almost the highest oil wells in Nigeria, yet the multinationals operating there have not deemed it fit to construct roads for the people let alone the Nigerian government that is enjoying the wealth of the area.”
“This government came in took it over from where the previous government stopped and has taken the road to Angiama. The Oporoma Bridge will be one of the governor’s landmark achievements when completed. The government is trying to open up the state through roads.
“We want to get to the Atlantic Ocean through the Sagbama/ Ekeremor. The road reaching Ekeremor is not enough, but we want to get to the Atlantic Ocean to access the blue economy while that of Nembe/Brass is also ongoing.”
The governor’s spokesman said in the areas of education, six more additional schools had been built in Yenagoa while several others had been renovated with Internet facilities.
He also said the government had set up technical schools in all the local government areas, stressing that the process of engaging more teachers was ongoing.
Alabrah further said: “The prosperity government also embarked on human capital development where about 5,000 persons have been trained in vocational training and were empowered to start up their own businesses.
“Not only that, the governor also gives out monthly grants to small-scale business owners of two hundred thousand naira (N200,000) per person in all the 105 wards across the state and the government is using that to empower four persons per ward. It was initially N50 million monthly but the Governor has increased it to N100m.
“The governor has also prioritized the welfare of civil servants in the state by paying their salaries early, noting that the government had been able to clear the retirees’ backlog from 2007 to 2015.
Culled from the Nation Newspaper
