By Samuel OYADONGHA

When Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State hinted that his administration would focus on the completion of the abandoned roads in the three senatorial districts, many dismissed this as mere rhetoric owing to the several failed promises by previous administrations to get the project completed.

The roads, initiated by the former Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha administration were designed to link the oil and gas rich coastal enclave of the Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia and Nembe axis of the predominantly riverine and swampy state to mainland Yenagoa, the state capital with a view to opening up the areas to commerce and fast track development.

The projects were however stalled owing to what sources blamed on poor funding. At a point, Governor Timipre Sylva had to call on the Federal Government to take over the construction of the three senatorial roads due to the huge financial cost.

Although no other sector has aroused as much interest and debate as the construction of roads in the pre-dominantly riverine state, the resumption of work on the three senatorial roads could at best be described as the greatest challenge of the Dickson administration to link the waters and land of the state.

The state government after painfully weighing the options of watching its citizens dying on daily basis on account of the boat mishaps and pirates attacks and buoyed by injection of funds into capital projects due to its tackling its bloated wage bill and the resultant sharp reduction in re-current expenditure re-suscitated the abandoned road projects.

Interestingly, the hope of indigenes of these far flung communities in the mangrove swamp of driving to their homeland in no distant time was re-kindled last month when the construction firms handling the projects returned to site.

This followed the release of N6bn to the construction firms by Governor Seriake Dickson to enable them mobilise to site.

The breakdown of the funds released include N2bn for the construction of Yenagoa-Oporoma Road by Julius Berger, representing the Central Senatorial road project, N2.5billion for the construction of the Sagbama-Ekeremor Road in the West Senatorial district road to Setraco and N1.5bn to Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company for the execution of Etegwe -Tombia Road.

It was therefore a moment of joy for indigenes of the state from the central senatorial district, which, over the years have had to contend with travelling by speedboats to their communities in the Southern Ijaw council area in spite of the attendant risk of boat mishaps and pirate attacks when Julius Berger mobilised to site.

Heavy duty equipment and haulage trucks belonging to Julius Berger in a long convoy last week made a triumphant return to its abandoned base across the Ikoli creek to the admiration of Bayelsans.

Julius Berger, it would be recalled pulled out of the Niger Delta at the height of youth militancy following the killing of its expatriate personnel in a botched kidnap attempt at Rumuji near Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Already, traders around the Ikoli bridge on the Swali end have been dislodged to give way for the firm to fix the ailing bridge which was yet to be completed before the company’s forced pull out from the region, but commissioned by the immediate past administration.

The story was not different at the Sagbama-Ekeremor flank, where Setraco had mobilised to site while work had also commenced at the Ebeni bridge linking the Sagbama axis to the Amassoma-Yenagoa-Etegwe stretch of the road.

An elated indigene of Oporoma in the deep swamp of Southern Ijaw council area, Thomas Moneyman told Sweetcrude, “this is a dream come true for us. We are more than convinced that the present administration is committed to the completion of the senatorial roads.”

Also speaking on the on-going projects, the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure Mr. Lawrence Erudjakpor, re-iterated the intention of the government to link the three senatorial districts of the state as well as change the face of the state.

Describing Yenagoa as a huge construction yard is an understatement, he said given the number of projects embarked upon by government qualifies the whole state as construction sites and that Yenagoa is beginning to shed its provincial toga.