Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has received the Senate ad-hoc committee on the East-West road. The meeting occurred in Government House, Yenagoa, on August 8, 2023. The meeting with the committee was led by Senator Abdul Ningi. The committtee is on a tour of states in the South-South. They seek to ascertain the level of work done on the East-West road. Additionally, they seek to find out the cause of the delay in completing the road project.
Notable committee members received by the governor include Senator Adams Oshiomhole, Senator Barry Mpigi and Senator Osita Izunaso.
Governor Diri congratulated the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio and all senators elected into the 10th Senate, who also stated that the Niger Delta had been abandoned for too long. However, he expressed confidence in the Senators’ ability to take the assignment to them seriously.
“First, I want to congratulate the President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and all the Senators elected into the Tenth Senate of the federal republic of Nigeria.
Governor Douye Diri stated, Let me, on behalf of the government and the people of Bayelsa State, welcome you. In one of our National Economic Council meetings, we talked about Nigeria’s deplorable state of federal roads, and the East-West road was part of it. The Vice President, our chairman, directed that every zone should have one federal road that the government can immediately attend to.
For us, who are the Governors of the South-South, it was unanimous that the only road which traverses the whole of the South-South States was the East-West road.
This assignment is one that you have taken very seriously. Let us use our offices as Senators or whichever office we find ourselves in to bring peace and development to our country. Let us deemphasize those things that divide us and emphasize those that will bring us together.
The Niger Delta has been abandoned for too long because you cannot explain that an East-West road has been under construction for decades and is still ongoing. Because of the flood last year, Bayelsa was cut off from the rest of the country, and up till now, those parts that were damaged on the Rivers State axis and the Delta State axis still need to be fixed.
This ad-hoc committee is very timely. There is so much work to do by the federal and state governments. I call on the federal government to speedily complete the East-West road,” Governor Diri stated.
