Bayelsa to back N100bn NDDC Brass Road project

Despite the death of soldiers and abduction of expatriate construction experts leading to abandonment of projects in the state, the Bayelsa State government has offered to help out in another N100 billion project by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Governor Henry Seriake Dickson says his government is ready to partner with the NDDC in building the proposed road and bridge linking Nembe to Brass.

Dickson made the pledge when the NDDC acting managing director, Ibim Semenitari, led other directors of the Commission to pay him a courtesy visit at Government House, Yenagoa.

The road and bridge project is the second phase of the Ogbia-Nembe Road, which the NDDC is implementing in partnership with the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) at N24.4 billion, which was attacked by armed men last week. Dickson regretted the killing of two soldiers at the site of the Ogbia-Nembe Road and assured that more efforts would be made to forestall future occurrence. He said that the state would need the support of the NDDC in that regard.

While commending NDDC on its plans to extend the road to Brass, the governor expressed delight at the Ogbia-Nembe Road project, which was opening up 14 communities on its stretch to economic activities and modern development.

He said: “We are sad that Brass is still cut off from the rest of Nigeria. For us in Bayelsa, our wealth is in the sea. This project will attract new business and link Brass to the rest of Nigeria.”

Dickson stated that the challenging terrain of the state was not sufficient reason for the non-performance of some contractors working on NDDC projects; a situation, which he said, left “a litany of abandoned NDDC projects in Bayelsa.”

The governor also commended the contributions of the NDDC in boosting agricultural development in the Niger Delta, stating that the future of Nigeria would be determined by its investments in agriculture.

Earlier in her presentation, Semenitari told the governor that the NDDC awarded 28 Regional Projects, with 20 ongoing, while two had been completed and commissioned. She said that a total of 658 other projects had also been awarded for shore protection, construction/repair of roads, sand-filling, construction of jetty, electrification, building of houses for professionals and solar water.

In addition, she said, NDDC was constructing the Akenfa Bridge awarded at a cost of N800m, the prototype university hostel at the Niger Delta University, Amassoma and internal roads network (Phase 1) at the Federal University of Technology, Otuoke. Other areas of intervention, she said, included the award of overseas scholarship for graduates from Bayelsa State.

“In NDDC, we believe that food security is critical to national security. We are doing this to expedite massive food production in Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta region. We can beat our chest and say that NDDC has treated Bayelsa as a ‘Special Area’. The biggest, single, most ambitious project ever undertaken by NDDC since its inception is cited in Bayelsa. The Ogbia-Nembe Road, which is linking and opening-up about 14 communities in Bayelsa to development, is a mega-project which first phase had been scheduled for commissioning this month, April.

The NDDC boss expressed regrets that the laudable project had become a victim of misguided actions by some youths from the region. She noted that gunmen had on Tuesday, April 5, killed 2 soldiers and kidnapped an expatriate worker, forcing SETRACO, the contractor handling the project to suspend work on the project.

“That sad and unfortunate attack against Bayelsa State progress is unacceptable and must be condemned by all well-meaning members of the public, as well as all stakeholders in the Niger Delta region and beyond. I was truly saddened that lives were so brutally taken in the course of our effort to bring development to the Niger Delta region.

Semenitari stated that the business of facilitating the sustainable development of the Niger Delta could not be conducted in in an insecure environment, adding that criminal elements should not be allowed to be a clog in the wheel of progress.

She urged the Bayelsa State government to assist the NDDC to galvanise the local population to resist those who want to keep them behind the 21st Century. “We invite Civil Society Organisations and other Community Based Organisations to launch advocacy that will alter the thought process of these misguided youths,” she said.