Mkpoikana Udoma
19 October 2017, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has said the Federal Government is committed to the completion of the Bonny-Bodo road project.
Recall that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had last Thursday in Bonny Island, Rivers State, flagged off the construction of the N120 billion Bonny-Bodo road project, 30 years after its conception, and which will be partly funded by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas company, NLNG.
Abe said the choice of Julius Berger as the contractor to handle the project is an indication of the commitment of the Federal Governmen to the realisation of the road project.
He called on the host communities of the project, Bodo and Bonny, to provide an enabling environment for the project, pointing out that everything done will come to naught if the environment was not conducive for the contractors.
“Julius Berger is the company that delivered the Abuja runway on time, they delivered the Tin Can Port before time, they will delivered the Bonny-Bodo road equally before time.
“Let me thank the two communities on whose goodwill we will depend on to achieve this monumental project, the people of Bodo and the people of Bonny and to say to them that it is the environment you create between you that will make this project realisable.
Abe, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on FERMA, also insisted that the Bonny-Bodo road project, when completed will positively affect the economy of the country.
He said, “I want to correct the impression that this road is only for the people of Bonny and Bodo City or for the Niger Delta.
“This road is a great achievement for the entire people of Nigeria. It will affect the economy of Nigeria; it will improve the bottom line of the Federal Government of Nigeria, all Nigerians will benefit from the construction of the Bonny-Bodo road.”
Meanwhile, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Andoni Local Government Area in Rivers State, Mr.Isaiah Gogo-Ogute, has decried alleged marginalisation of Andoni ethnic nationality by the federal government in the just flagged off Bodo-Bonny road project.
The council boss frowned at the non-inclusion of Andoni in the nomenclature of the project, and emphasised that Bodo and Bonny has no common boundary neither by land nor by water without Andoni.
Gogo-Ogute called on the federal government and other relevant agencies to immediately correct the project name to bear Bodo-Andoni-Bonny road.
He said the denial of Andoni ethnic nationality the right to possession amount to undermining and neglecting their corporate existence, stressing that Andoni strongly reject the project name and will not allow it to stand without their inclusion.