Delta @30: DICC lauds Okowa and appeals for more inclusion of Ijaw in his developmental agenda

A Delta based pressure group, under the aegis of Delta Ijaw Comrade Community, compromising rights activists and online publishers of Ijaw extraction, has urged the governor of Delta State, His Excellency senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to prioritize the development of Ijaw Communities as the state turned 30.

This was made available to Congress correspondent by a press statement signed by its president, Comrade Princewill Benibai in Warri on Saturday.

The group’s president said there was no gainsaying that the governor of the state, His Excellency, Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, had done lots of remarkable projects and things worthy of commendation in all sectors.

Princewill added that there were visible road infrastructural developments in the state and other laudable programmes geared towards the girl child development, youths empowerment, appointment of youths into political offices and ability to listen to genuine agitations, were indeed virtues that would make him stand out among his equals.

He said DICC did not write to seek attention but rather to correct the ills bedeviling Ijaw people and Niger Delta at large, noting that while the Governor had done lots in other parts of the state, the Ijaw communities in the riverine parts of the state need his attention more than ever.

The group enumerated the needs as: Ogulagha/Odimodi road project, resettlement of the Diebiri people back to their original ancestral home, building structures in the permanent site of the Delta State School of Marine Technology, Burutu, and proper funding and completion of the Ayakoromo bridge project, demarcation of Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja land boundaries, more youth empowerment from the Ijaw axis.

Princewill stressed that it would be unfair to state that the Governor had not done anything in Ijaw areas, noting that Burutu, Ogulagha, Sokeboku/Yokiri, Obotobo I & II, Oporoza, Okerenkoko were part of some laudable road projects completed by Okowa’s administration in Ijaw Communities.

The rights group added that in spite of few projects executed in the Ijaw areas, it was not commensurate to the contributions of Ijaws in the state.

He maintained that the level of development in the Ijaw area is not good enough when compared to what the Government is doing in other parts of the state.

The DICC particularly appealed to Governor Okowa to inject funds for the timely completion of the Ayakoromo bridge so that his name could be mentioned like Ibori, who executed the Bomadi bridge project.