Rivers State Government has called on the failed Rivers State APC Governorship Candidate in the 2015 election Dr Dakuku Peterside to apologize to the people of Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas for deliberately abandoning the Ogoni-Andoni-Opobo (Unity)Road when he was the State Commissioner for Works. The neglect of the road was the major reason why the people of Opobo/Nkoro LGA rejected their son Dakuku Peterside and voted massively for Governor Nyesom Wike from Obio/Akpor in 2015.
Reacting to a press statement credited to Dakuku Peterside, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications Barr Emma Okah said it is a political tragedy that Dakuku Peterside has not learnt any lesson from his failure in the 2015 Governorship election in his Ward and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government, saying the same fate will await him in the future if he does not apologize to the people of Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas for failing to complete the road at least up to Opobo town.
“I don’t take my friend Dakuku Peterside serious on many political issues because his arguments and claims are usually self destructive. He talks like a child and telling lies runs in his blood vessels like a virus. He claimed that he drove to Kalaibiama during the 2015 electioneering campaigns. He was possibly using a flying car” Okah said
According to Mr Okah, the previous administration had substantially built Bridge 8 before abandoning it. At that stage, ramps which slope the bridge level to the road level had not been built to enable vehicles pass the bridge level in descent to the road level. So how did Peterside’s vehicle drive across the bridge without ramps and he did not summersault? Before the Wike administration did the work, the people of Kalaibiama were using planks as ramps to cross the bridge and maneuver their motorbikes.
Besides, the distance from bridge 8 to Kalaibiama town is about 2 Kilometers of extremely swampy and challenging terrain which was the reason why the previous government abandoned it. To the glory of God, Governor Wike has battled and successfully constructed the ramp and road from the bridge to Kalaibiama. This is a feat that Dakuku Peterside seeks to appropriate.
What Dakuku Peterside did not inform Rivers People is that after abandoning bridge 8, the previous administration initiated the process of secretly cancelling the Andoni – Opobo road contract and to demonstrate this, they refused to fund the contractor any more. Is this an action of a man who loves the Opobo people?
“The Nyesom Wike administration came on board and discontinued the cancellation of the contract but went ahead to revalidate it and has funded the contractor to the tune of 50% of the revalidated contract price” Okah said, noting that this is the reason why work progressed to the point of vehicles driving into Opobo/Nkoro LGA and will get to Opobo Town in due course.
Governor Wike has been sincere in executing the Unity Road project and has matched words with action. Dakuku Peterside should be ashamed that the administration he served as Commissioner for Works was receiving an average of N21Bn every month from federal allocation but only N25Bn was committed to the Ogoni-Andoni-Opobo (Road) for the 8 years of that government.
On the contrary, the Governor Nyesom Wike administration has since committed the sum of N7Bn in less than three years towards the completion of project and the results are positive. So between that administration and the present one, who loves the people of Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas more?
It is high time the pampers-wearing Dakuku Peterside consulted well with his master before jumping into the public domain to make unfounded assertions and abuse others like an ill-bred child on matters he has scanty knowledge because those who live in glass houses do not throw stones.
