Amaechi assures on completion of ongoing projects

GOVERNOR Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, yesterday, said that his administration would focus on completion of ongoing projects in the state this year.
The governor, in his new year broadcast to the state, said he would also  steer the state from the path of self-centred politics, which he said  characterised the area in the past, adding that his administration would  vigorously pursue development of all sectors of the state’s economy.
Urging the people to be wary of politicians, who may come with all kinds of deceptive promises, the governor said his administration would remain accountable and continue to promote good and qualitative governance.
Amaechi said that what some have been seeing as a personal quarrel between him and  President Goodluck Jonathan, was only because of the insistence on the part of the state for the Federal Government to give the state its due.
According to the governor, the state had been robbed of some of its oil wells, adding that the Federal Government had not refunded money the state government expended on the reconstruction of Port Harcourt-Owerri Road.
He said: “First, we have expended huge resources in executing approved federal projects in the state, such as the Port Harcourt-Owerri Road without any refund. Secondly, there is hardly any reasonable federal project going on in the state. Work on the Port Harcourt International Airport, a major gateway into the Eastern part of the country, has been largely abandoned, while other airports whose rehabilitation was embarked on at the same time have since been commissioned. Thirdly, the Federal Government has embarked on a reduction of our natural resource endowments. A number of oil wells and gas fields located in the state have been carved out and ceded to neighboring states while resources due from these have also been paid to those states.
“Fourthly, major industrial and strategic security projects that were originally slated for location in Rivers State have been moved to neighboring states without even the courtesy of an explanation. Fifthly, there is evidence of discrimination against Rivers State indigenes in key federal appointments. Of all the councils and boards of federal universities and tertiary institutions recently announced, there is hardly any Rivers indigene considered fit to head any of them. Sixthly and most importantly, the Federal Government has actively encouraged the destabilisation of the security of the state through tacit encouragement of the return of militants to the streets of Port Harcourt and by encouraging the police to play a partisan role in the political affairs of the state.”