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The 2015 All Progressives Congress (APC) governor candidate in Rivers State, Dr Dakuku Peterside called on Governor Nyesom Wike to urgently reactivate the drainage master plan put in place by his predecessor, Rt Hon Chibuike Amaechi.
Dr Peterside has spoken out against the terrible flooding in several areas of Port Harcourt and Rivers State as a whole.
He lamented that the people of Rivers had suffered untold suffering as a result of the flooding, which had long been predicted by the Nigeria Metrological Agency (NIMET), with the state in the spotlight.
According to him, the administration of former governor Chibuike Amaechi had put in place a drainage master plan for the city of Port Harcourt and was already in progress before he left office in 2015, but has however been abandoned by Wike for political reasons.
Peterside, a former Rivers State works commissioner, criticized the Wike-led administration for not paying attention to NIMET’s early warning signals, but instead chose to blame the people of Rivers who already suffer from a lack of jobs and economic empowerment.
According to him, “Our people are traumatized, a lot of people are displaced, we have lost several goods and properties estimated at more than 3 billion naira, social and economic life has been disrupted because the state government has collapsed. asleep, our people are suffering.
“The governor assigns the projects of his office without going through the official procedure and the very important environmental impact assessment (EIA), which unfortunately led to the pain and agony of the population.
“It is even more shocking that the state government has yet to respond, even if lip service to the people’s cries, but has chosen to blame everyone but itself. A responsive government should now engage and seek ways out of the crisis.
“Port Harcourt has never been so bad and this can only mean that the relevant ministries, departments and agencies of the state are either incompetent in the performance of their duties or have been deprived of the funds necessary to function optimally. . ”
The former director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Security Agency (NIMASA) called on the government to immediately mobilize state resources to alleviate the suffering of the population.
“With heavy rains expected in the coming weeks, as predicted by NIMET, it will be only natural for the Rivers State government to immediately activate the moribund emergency management agency which can respond quickly to serious situations. and stop any difficulty that the population may be facing.
“Now is the time for the state government to be compassionate rather than grandiose and looking for whom to blame for its own incompetence and mismanagement. Our people deserve better than this and it is the government’s responsibility to provide solutions, ”he said.
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