The Bayelsa State Governorship Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Udengs Eradiri, has queried claims by the state Governor, Douye Diri, that he used N30 billion to complete the ongoing 10.2km phase two of the Glory Drive dual carriageway.
Eradiri wondered how the road project, which former Governor Henry Seriake Dickson had almost completed, could still gulp such outrageous money.
He recalled that while former Governor Timipre Sylva completed the clearing component of the project, his successor Dickson carried out the sand-filling aspect while Diri was only expected to asphalt it.
The candidate, who spoke at his residence in Yenagoa on Wednesday after receiving officials of the US Consulate-General led by the consulate’s Political/Economic Section Chief, Mr Mike Elvin, said the implication was that Diri spent N3bn to construct each kilometre of the road.
Describing Diri’s administration as lacking in transparency and accountability, Eradiri asked the governor to disclose the total cost of other projects he started with an unfortunate motive to brighten his chances at the poll.
Eradiri said: “Is this N30billion part of the money that was spent from inception, or is this the one they just used to tile that road? It means that one kilometre is N3 billion. There is a huge fraud going on here. Somebody needs to explain to Bayelsans how you spent N30 billion in ten kilometres on a road you did not sand-fill.
“Governor Dickson did sand-filling of that road. I have strong reservations about the amount spent on that road. The governor should also tell us all the roads, how much did you spend? It’s as if somebody is not doing his arithmetic properly or deliberately using road construction to syphon funds in this state.
“Tell us, the Nembe-Brass road, how much have you earmarked? How much have you mobilized? When will it be concluded, whether it is in your tenure or not? You tell us because these are projections that are made in every project. Something is wrong for the governor to tell us that he spent N N30 billion on a ten-kilometre road.
“So I have reservations, the same way he must tell us how much he has spent on the Ekeremor road, so that we know whether we are harboring political criminals or we have governors, we want to know.
“If you tell us that you spent N30billion in that place, then we need to know how much you spent in Ekeremor for a road that was practically done by the former administration. This clarity needs to be done for us to know who we are dealing with. If we have somebody who is squandering our resources, they should come and tell us”.
Eradiri noted that some critical roads that should be built to unlock the state’s economic potential had been poorly conceived with single lanes.
He said: “There has to be accountability in Bayelsa because the monies that have come to the state are not proportional to the said projects. The road to Southern Ijaw is one lane; in this modern day, who is building a lane road? They are talking about the road to the Brass with the potential of Brass and the blue economy. It is one very narrow lane.
“The Ekeremor road that is supposed to hit Agge, the best shoreline for a port, is one narrow lane. I call on the governor to come out clean on the cost of all the projects.