Group Urges Objective Assessment Of Diri’s Administration

As political activities gather momentum ahead of the November 11, 2023 Bayelsa governorship election, a group operating under the auspices of the Bayelsa Mandate Group (BMG) has stressed the need for objective assessment of the administration of Governor Douye Diri.

The group, in a statement signed by its leader, Chief Nazuan Godfrey, made available to journalists yesterday in Lagos, faulted criticisms by a former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, advising him not to allow partisan politics to cloud his sense of judgment.

BMG urged Sylva, who is also the immediate past minister of state (Petroleum) to act as a true statesman by acknowledging the giant strides of the Diri administration in the last four years instead of the baseless criticisms he has embarked upon.

According to Nazuan, what interests the people of Bayelsa, the only homogenous state in the country, is its development and the ability of the leaders to make life better for the citizens, this the group insisted is what Diri has been doing.

He said, “We are all witnesses to what happened in the recent past, during the Sylva era. The Glory Drive Road for which over N9 billion was earmarked, what came out of it? The Kolo Creek Electric Power Station switch gears project which was varied from an initial sum of N486 million to over N1 billion, only has an abandoned control room to show for it.’’

“For the records, we gathered that Sylva is talking about some gas turbines, when we all know who sold them as scraps, the turbines bought by the late Melford Okilo. The Olympus Rolls Royce Gas Turbines were bought and installed by Okilo, while the other turbines were the Russian made Salut bought by the late Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha and the Rolls Royce RB211 bought by former President Goodluck Jonathan during his brief stay as governor of Bayelsa State. What happened to them?

“Let Sylva mention the year, model and capacity of the turbine he claimed to have bought that was sold by his successors,” the group stated.