Chief Perekeme Kpodoh of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has bemoaned the secrecy surrounding the initiatives of Senator Douye Diri, the state’s governor.
By frequently launching unfinished projects in the state, Kpodoh charged the governor with defaming the state in the eyes of the public.
The former security adviser requested that Diri reveal the price of some of the projects he was working on in the state as well as the project’s contractors.
He asserted that the state’s citizens had a right to know how their tax dollars were being spent and how much money had been authorized and allotted for each project in the state.
He said: “Governor Douye Diri should tell us how much he is using to execute each project and the timeline for the projects. How much has he sunk so far in the ongoing Yenagoa-Oporoma road?
“Most of these projects were started by the previous administration and we know there have been variations and contract reviews. But Governor Diri has refused to transperantly render an account of how much of Bayelsa money he is deploying into these projects”.
Kpodoh expressed regret that Diri had disrupted the transparency briefing his predecessor had started to inform Bayelsans on the inputs and outflows of their money.
“Former Governor Seriake Dickson initiated the transperancy briefing to give Bayelsans the breakdown of monthly incomes and expenses. The previous administration made it a ritual and ensured such detailed accounts were given to members of the public.
“But under Diri, the transparency briefing is dying a natural death. It has become so irregular that the people of the state are beginning to forget about it. Why are the financial dealings of Diri shrouded in secrecy?
“How much has come into the state since he became a governor? We want to state categorically that the homongous amount he has received is not commensurate with what is on ground”, he said.
Kpodoh maintained that by launching incomplete and subpar projects, the Diri administration was disgracing the oil-rich state.
“It is only in Diri’s Bayelsa that one lane of a dual carriage road project was inaugurated. It is only in Diri’s Bayelsa that the government house through their data boys, are celebrating the installation of a beam to a bridge in a road undergoing construction.
“It is only in Diri’s Bayelsa that a whole Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo was invited to commission the construction of a bridge in a road that is still undergoing construction. It is only in Diri’s Bayelsa that the state government is celebrating a project that local government in other states are doing with unimaginable fanfare.
“When you juxtapose what is happening in states like Rivers and Akwa Ibom, you will realise that Bayelsa has become a joke under Diri. What exactly is governor Diri doing with our money? Have these substandard projects become conduits to siphon money and beef up their financial war chest to prosecute their bid for a second term?”
Kpodoh urged Diri to make public a list of all the money he has received and committed to projects since taking office from different sources.
He claimed that Bayelsans would no longer stand motionless and watch the state administration display mediocrity as evidence of projects, thanks to the infrastructural revolution in other states like Rivers.
