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From Tony John, Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has vowed not to lower the standard and pace of development he inherited because it was one way of improving the lives of Rivers people while advancing the fortunes of the state.
Fubara, who spoke at the flag-off of the internal road project in Elelenwo community of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area as part of activities to celebrate his first 100 days in office, said it was in keeping with his campaign promises to consolidate on the existing pace of development.
He explained that it was because of the commitment to expand the scope of development that his administration approached the House of Assembly to secure approval for an additional N200 billion to add to the 2023 budget of N500 billion.
“Because of the sensitive nature of projects we nominated for the expansion and development of our dear state, we sought the approval from the House of Assembly that graciously approved an estimated budget, at that time, of N200 billion, which we added to make N700 billion. If you divide what we met, you can see that we are doing about 80 percent of the proposed budget of 2023 that we inherited.”
He said the approval had enabled his administration to begin construction of the Port Harcourt Dual Carriage Ring Road project, a single largest project ever undertaken by any state in the country.
He stated that his administration is not stopping at that, but is going ahead to do more projects that would benefit not only Rivers people, but every resident who is contributing to advance the economic activities of the State.
Governor Fubara urged residents in the Elelenwo community to embrace peace and live in unity while cooperating with his administration in its effort at tackling issues of insecurity in the area.
“Today, we are here to do something unusual. It is unusual because when you mark your first 100 days in office, it is not just commissioning of projects, but we want to start adding flag-off of projects. So, we are adding Elelenwo internal roads as part of our programme for our first one hundred days in office.
“You are aware of our journey from the first day that we took oath of office, we made promises to the good people of Rivers State that we are not going to lower the momentum for any reason but continue to add value to what we met believing that the only way we can sustain the strength of our party is to contribute positively to the lives of our people.”
Providing the description of the project, Commissioner for Works, Dakorinama George-Kelly, said there were 26 separate roads in Elelenwo community marked out for reconstruction and have a total length of 25.12 Kilometers with a completion period of six months.
