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Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, has approved the appointment of Dan Alabrah as the acting chief press secretary.
Alabrah, whose appointment was the first to be announced by the Head of Press Unit, Government House, Ebi Avi, was a former special adviser, Public Affairs in the administration of former governor Seriake Dickson.
Alabrah before joining the Bayelsa State government was the former head of media, Presidential Amnesty Office after resigning his position as deputy editor, Sunday Sun.
Alabrah, in a statement, said Diri has approved with immediate effect the appointment of Friday Konbowei Benson as the secretary to the state government. Benson, from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, was the longest serving speaker of the state House of Assembly before he contested the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary with Diri.
According to Alabrah, also appointed was another governorship aspirant, Sunday Benson Agadaga, who was appointed as chief of staff, Government House.
Agadaga, a retired permanent secretary from Ogbia Local Government Area, was one-time commissioner for Information and the immediate past national president of Ogbia Brotherhood.
The Deputy Chief of Staff is Peter Pereotubo Akpe, former majority leader in the Fifth Assembly and a former commissioner in the administration of former governor Dickson.
Meanwhile, Governor Diri yesterday met with officials of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) over perennial blackout that has crippled economic activities in Yenagoa.
The meeting, at the instance of Diri, was part of his efforts to actualise the promise he made in his inaugural address to ensure electricity power supply to the state capital, Yenagoa.
The former general manager, Bayelsa Electricity Company, Olice Kemenanabo, who briefed newsmen after the meeting, said the meeting was to seek ways of ensuring PHEDC provide 12 hours of electricity daily to consumers in the state capital.
Kemenanabo said state government, on its part, expressed its commitment to prevail on communities to ensure prompt payment of electricity bills.
According to him, if consumers pay their bills promptly, there will be an improvement in power supply to Yenagoa up to about 18 or 24 hours daily.
“On the part of the state government, it will meet their commitment for electricity payment. Where it is possible, we will give 24 hours, which also goes with the amount of money that will come out from the people’s pockets.
“Where we discover people are responding effectively, we will increase it to, may be, 18 and ultimately to 24 hours,” he said.
