Abuja – Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta has pleaded with the Muhammadu Buhari administration to speed up the work on the 2nd Niger Bridge.
He also called on the administration to facilitate the gas city project at Ogidigben in Escravos to create more jobs for Nigerians.
These were the governor’s demands on Thursday when he led a delegation State on a courtesy visit to President Buhari to thank him for appointing a Delta man, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, Group Managing Director of NNPC.
Okowa told State House correspondents in Abuja that the President told his delegation that he had been adequately briefed on the 2nd Niger Bridge.
“He raised the hope that activities on the construction of the bridge would be heightened in the next few weeks.’’
The governor said his administration believed that the gas city project would benefit Nigerians and Delta if the project was continued. “There is need for that project to be given some strength.’’
He called for intensified dredging of the Warri port to boost economic activities in the state.
“The port is very personal to the rest of the South-South, the South-East and the North-Central because it will be turned into an economic hub if we are able to dredge the Escravos bar’’, he said.
Okowa said the delegation mentioned the problem encountered by motorists at the intersection at Igbese on the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha road.
“The road is quite problematic to us. Sometimes we may have a gridlock and at times you find that the accident rate in that place is much and we thought too that the best way forward is to have an interchange at that point.’’
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According to Okowa, being a federal government road, the state needed to seek presidential approval to construct the interchange “even at our own cost.’’
On the NNPC boss, the governor said although the appointment was done on merit, the state felt it was important to appreciate the President for choosing its son. (NAN)