In line with ills accompanying the year 2020, residents of Bayelsa State have continued groaning in pains as they recount loss of assets worth billions of naira following the perennial annual flood that hit the State and its environs amidst the ENDSARS crisis rocking the country.
The flood which submerged the entire State upland areas has caused severe damages to both public and private properties, left many homeless, with the business community plunged into huge losses. This came barely few months after the country stepped out of the scourge of global Covid-19 pandemic.
However, in expression of concern over victim’s outcry for government intervention, the Director General of Core Advocate for Genuine Change and Peace Initiative (CAGCPI), Comrade. Jacob Brave Obekuma blamed the misfortune on government negligence of the very statutory responsibilities it owes the citizenry.
According to the ex–leader of Niger Delta agitators, Brave, who made the disclosure in the State capital Yenagoa, Bayelsa is among States that receives the highest allocation from the federation account,
exclusive of the ecological fund, excess crude and revenue trickling into the State treasury from various MDGs and international donor agencies, saying what leadership of the State requires now is the political goodwill to develop the state infrastructure.
While he described the present flood situation as triple tragedy to residents who are grappling to recoup from the harsh impact of Covid-19 and ENDSARS protest, Jacob said at the moment what Bayelsans need is not political rhetoric as noticeable in successive administration, but a deliberate and conscious effort to address the problem of infrastructural deficit, poverty and unemployment in the State.
Mr. Jacob further called on Governor Douye Diri to take advantage of the oncoming dry season to embark on massive infrastructural projects, more essentially construction of new roads, the proposed flyover at Tombia roundabout, as well as putting up standard drainage system across the State to assuage future flood.
