Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has urged the federal government to consider renaming the East-West Road in the South-South region to reflect its real location and status.
Governor Diri also called on the federal government to ensure more inclusiveness in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in order to give Niger Delta people a sense of belonging.
Diri made the call yesterday when he received the Minister of Niger Delta, Engr. Abubakar Momoh, and his entourage which included the managing director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Sam Ogbuku, in Government House, Yenagoa.
The governor said the East-West road had been in a deplorable condition for years, adding that the nomenclature of the road, which crosses all the South-South states, was a misnomer.
He said: “I believe that is a wrong nomenclature. That nomenclature should actually be the South-South Road because it links all the six states of the South-South region.
“That nomenclature might have come in those days when Bayelsa was part of Rivers and they were part of the Eastern region, and when Delta and Edo states were part of the Mid-West region. So that nomenclature would have been a historical west to east.
“Today, the story is different and I appeal that the federal government changes the nomenclature from East-West to South-South Road. That road is central to all the six states as it traverses all of them.”
