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YENAGOA - The Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Timi Alaibe said the Commission has.....
YENAGOA - The Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Timi Alaibe said the Commission has the capacity to sustain the tempo of its development initiative, even as he noted that the task of accelerated eradication of poverty in the region requires a collaborative effort of all stakeholders.
Speaking at the commissioning of a concrete road network project built by the NDDC at Adagbabiri, Sagbama Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, Alaibe said though the people had suffered over the years due to government neglect, coupled with environmental challenges, the NDDC is determined to ensure that community life was improved throughout the region by providing them basic infrastructural needs.
'Before now, to visit an Izon community, you need a pair of rain boots as a necessity, but today, you don't need that. President Olusegun Obasanjo's initiative through the NDDC is what you are seeing live, and the people of Adagbabiri are now tasting the dividends of democracy", Alaibe said. While expressing optimism at the new hope and opportunities the road network offers in terms of commerce and agriculture in the area, the NDDC boss, however, frowned at the slow pace of work at the water project for the community and tasked the contractor to complete the job in the next few months or have his contract terminated. He pointed out that the Commission has zero tolerance for indolent contractors.
Earlier in his welcome address, the traditional ruler of the community, H.W.S Diffa expressed the gratitude of his community to the NDDC, and the Federal Government for the project, which he said will stand the test of time because of the quality of construction which provided for drainage.
According to the royal father, the road before its construction was a nightmare to pass through particularly during the rainy season, adding that 'Adagbabiri had prayed for when this ugly situation would be reversed".
Commending the Commission's efforts, the traditional ruler said 'The NDDC as an intervention body, dedicated to raising the level of socio-economic and infrastructural development in the oil and gas rich Niger Delta Region has indeed lived up to expectation by the various people-oriented projects it has provided in the region within so short a period of its existence". He implored the NDDC to construct a concrete jetty to link the road, as well as additional feeder roads within the town, in order to further boost economic activities in the area, and adjoining communities.