Bayelsa State governor, Douye Diri, has faulted the criticism of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project by a former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke.
Duke had stated in an interview on Arise Television that the project was an impossibility attributable to swampy terrain.
The 750km freeway project being constructed by the Federal Government traverses 9 coastal states, together with Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River.
Duke had stated, “The Lagos-Calabar Road is unbuildable. You cannot even go through Bayelsa. Bayelsa is swampy. Even Yenagoa, the capital, is swampy. You will probably have to build about 100 or 200 bridges to go through those swamps.”
Responding to Duke’s criticism, the Bayelsa governor, in an announcement by his spokesman, Daniel Alabrah, expressed disappointment {that a} former governor of a South-South state would criticise the project attributable to politics and never based mostly on truth or actuality.
Diri stated Duke’s reference to Bayelsa and its troublesome, swampy terrain was out of sync with the truth about growth within the state.
He stated if Duke was in tune with happenings in Bayelsa, the place his administration had constructed roads and bridges throughout swamps and the mangroves, he would have identified that the coastal road project was attainable.
“To say the least, I really feel upset that former Governor Duke, who’s from our area, made such a remark. Clearly, he’s not abreast of present developments in road building and infrastructure growth in our state.
“I wish to imagine that his criticism had political colourations and he didn’t take into account the importance of such a project to our area.
“In Bayelsa, now we have efficiently constructed twin carriage roads and bridges in related terrain, and our state is healthier for it.
“So, he is wrong. The Lagos-Calabar coastal road is buildable and possible.”
Diri additional acknowledged that the project was crucial to unlocking growth within the states and riverine communities alongside its pathway.
According to him, the coastal freeway can be very expensive to the Ijaw ethnic nationality because it is likely one of the initiatives that the Ijaw National Congress (INC), even from its inception within the Nineties, clamoured for.
He stated it was solely the administration of President Bola Tinubu that ultimately undertook the project after a few years of presenting the request to earlier governments on the centre.
Diri defined that this was one in all his causes for becoming a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) because the curiosity of his folks was paramount.
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