Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Rivers State has knocked Governor of Rivers State, Nyesome Wike over the recently signed contracts with Julius Berger for the construction of two new flyovers in Port Harcourt.
Recall that the governor in July had announced plans to construct the eleventh and twelfth flyovers which will be cited at Rumuokwuta round-about and Location Junction, NTA Road.
The group in a statement said Wike’s decision to go on with the new projects after the construction of over five flyovers is “not properly conceived.”
According to the statement, “While the total amount spent on the twelve flyovers has remained unclear, we are however concerned that the latest decision of the governor to construct two new flyovers is not properly conceived. For instance, a look at the 2022 appropriation of the state, did not clearly state that the state government will be constructing two new flyovers in the state. This portends an indication that the construction of capital projects in the state may not have followed due diligence as required by law.
“Our visit to the proposed sites of the two new flyovers showed that over two thousand businesses would be affected. This means that while property owners may receive compensation for their buildings, many livelihoods arising from the businesses that will be affected by demolition, will be lost. Until now the state government has not told rivers people how it intends to compensate for the livelihoods that will be lost to the demolitions.”
The group further queried, “if flyovers are the only social problems in the state,” adding that figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the State has the third highest unemployment and under-employment rate at 43.7%.”
“Our findings in the education sector also revealed five major existential threats plaguing the cohesion of primary and secondary education in the state. The findings include infrastructural dearth, lack of administrative funding, low morale of teachers, and the lack of teaching and learning aids.”
CLO stated that several teachers in the state particularly those in the primary and secondary schools have complained that they now “buy teaching aids like makers, dusters, pens, and whiteboards, including plastic chairs, from their personal income.”
“This is because the last time the Rivers State government gave administrative support to schools was in 2020. In some schools, CLO discovered that students still seat on the floor to learn,” the group added.
The group urged the governor to look into the building and reviving of moribund industries in order to create jobs for the unemployed youths in the state, and also give attention to other capital projects within the health and education sectors.
CLO further called on Wike to fulfill his promise to uphold inclusive and periodic stewardship accountability by “telling rivers people the total amount of funds that have accrued to the state from both federation accounts and internally generated revenue, including how the funds have been spent in the last seven years.”
“We also call on the governor to fulfil his promise by giving full account of how fund donations for COVID-19 were spent. We believe that two years of post COVID lock down, is enough time for the governor to update rivers people on how the funds were spent,” the statement added.
