Militant Activities Scare NDDC Operations In Bayelsa

Militant activities in parts of Bayelsa State have become a source of concern for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
The Bayelsa State Representative and Director of the commission, Godknows Alameiseigha, disclosed this when the state executive committee of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) paid him a courtesy call in his office in Yenagoa.
Alameiseigha urged the media to help in sensitizing the populace on the need to secure NDDC projects in their domains, saying it was only when the citizens do so that projects would be started and finished.
He said some of the projects were often vandalised before they were completed. He also explained that most of the times, the stalling of projects were caused by frequent changes of NDDC boards.
He asked for more synergy between the board and Bayelsa State Government to enable them achieve greater development of the state.
“Could you believe that people are going to remove the solar lights? Our people can’t go to rural communities now for that project because militants are on the river,” he said.
He pleaded with the state and local governments to look after the projects already sited by NDDC maintaining that after building, the projects are always handed over to the state and local governments to manage.
Explaining that NDDC cannot fund all the projects with only N164 billion that is yearly allocated to the state, he called on the state government to collaborate with the board so that most of these projects can be initiated and actualized.
“State Government should advise which community should have what project. Boards should be allowed to stay for sometime before being dissolved. We should forget our party affiliations and come together, form a synergy to build our state.
“I commission you journalists today to be project monitoring ambassadors. Help us to monitor these projects and sensitize the populace so that the society will be a better place to stay.”
The Chairman of NUJ, Bayelsa State Council, Tonye Yemoleigha, commended the Lighting Up Niger Delta programme of the NDDC, which has installed street lights in many rural and urban communities.
Yemoleigha thanked the board for its educational projects in the region and promised the collaboration of the media with the commission to achieve its corporate objectives.
“We will deepen this relationship and ask our people to own NDDC projects in their domains. While everybody is talking development in your community you shouldn’t be the one to take away development from you community,” he said.