Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has demanded that the Bayelsa State governor, Chief Seriake Dickson, account for close to N100 billion expended on the state government’s airport, which has not been functional.
National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Thursday, argued that the Bayelsa State government, under the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), had inflated the cost of the airport’s construction, adding that the governor knew the project would fail, having been sited wrongly.
Oshiomhole, who said the airport project was the most expensive airport project in the world, challenged the Bayelsa State governor, Dickson, to fly in and out of it, saying not even airports built in the river would cost as much as the one in Bayelsa.
It would be recalled that Governor Dickson, on Wednesday, while on campaign in the state, had alleged that the APC-led federal government had deliberately been playing politics with the licensing of the airport, alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari deliberately withheld granting license for the project so it would not be one of the campaign points for the PDP in the state.
But Oshiomhole, while reacting to the allegation, noted that the airport’s location is below sea level, a situation making it impossible for it to be operational.
“I think the media should not just take statement from people’s mouth. You know the fact that Bayelsa Airport has been flooded. Is it Buhari that flooded the Airport? Because the runway is below the ground level. They ought to have carried out proper survey. So, the runway is flooded with water because it was not built properly.
“The truth is, we challenge him (Dickson), whether it was Buhari who asked him to inflate the contract because there are different versions of the actual cost. That contract, I put it to my dear friend and brother, Dickson that it has entered Guinness book as the most expensive runway ever built anywhere in the world.
“Even the one built from the river, from the sea didn’t cost half of that. So, it is an endless project. He shouldn’t throw blame. But you the media should also interrogate when these people make all these unsubstantiated allegations.
“So, the truth is, he (Dickson) is in trouble. He cannot tell his people why he will spend close to a hundred billion for a facility such as that. Yet, he himself cannot land on it. You people should not allow merchant of half truths to get away with blue murder. Dickson must account for that money, not because of election but he owes his people.
“Look at Bayelsa state, look at the revenue it has accrued and look at Yenagoa. Look at the roads in Yenagoa. Did Buhari tell him not to use the money he gave him? Truth is that, he never knew that the day of reckoning would come. And the beauty of democracy is that, four years, or sometimes eight years, is for the thief, one electoral day for the electorates and that day is 16th of November.
“Dickson would have to suffer for his own sins against the people of Bayelsa in which he mismanaged their resources after eight years in office. So, he should keep Buhari out of it”, said Oshiomohle stated.
