By Samuel Oyadongha

Yenagoa— The Bayelsa State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, and Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, have called on Governor Seriake Dickson to give priority to the development of agriculture and the rural communities.

Both organisations also agreed to partner to sensitise the rural populace against the use of hard drugs, which they noted can be linked to increased wave of piracy and kidnapping in the state.

The call was made yesterday when CLO paid a courtesy visit on the leadership of the NUJ.

The two organisations agreed that Bayelsa State has potential for sea foods and timber, stressing the need to redirect the minds of the youth to self-employment.

They commended Governor Dickson for ongoing construction efforts in the state, especially roads in the Central and West senatorial districts, and the monthly transparency briefing.

State chairman of NUJ, Tarinyo Akono, said there was the need to educate the people on the dangers of hard drugs which intake, he noted, had become high in some rural communities in the state.

Akono also tasked the state Ministry of Health and National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to check the activities of peddlers, who sell fake, expired and adulterated drugs in rural communities.

Earlier, state chairman of CLO, Nengi James lamented the negative implications of piracy, noting that women could no longer go to the coast to buy sea foods for sale in Yenagoa.

On development of rural communities, the two organisations urged the state government to give serious attention to the establishment of the proposed Bayelsa State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, BASOPADEC.