The Administrator of Rivers State, Vice Admiral (Rtd) Ibok Ete Ekwe Ibas, says his administration is committed to fixing most of the vandalised infrastructure in the state within available financial resources.
Vice Admiral (Rtd), Ibas expressed the commitment during an inspection tour of some ongoing road projects, vandalised secretariats of local government councils and the recently inaugurated Bori Zonal Hospital on Friday.
Some of the road projects inspected included the Nyhokhana-Kenkhana road, connecting the Luuwa Community to the Baani Community and the Zakphor-Bateem road, all in the Khana Local Government Area.
Other projects are the Eleme internal roads and drainage, and the Eleme section of the Port Harcourt Ring Road project.
The administrator also conducted an assessment of the extent of vandalism of the Khana and Eleme Local Government Council Secretariats.
Vice Admiral (Rtd) Ibas described as disheartening the level of destruction and said that when people destroy such infrastructure, no matter the reason, they set the state back.
Vice Admiral (Rtd) Ibas stated, “I think we owe the people that we are superintending over the duty to ensure that these facilities and infrastructure are in the best order.
“We have made a commitment to fix most of this vandalised infrastructure with the limited resources that we have. It is a commitment that, I think, we need to deliver to enable those who are using them to return to work.
“I think that by the time I go visiting the other local governments and see what we have on the ground, we will see how we can continue to build trust in our efforts to unite the people of Rivers State so that we can make this state a great state that people would want to be in.”
Vice Admiral (Rtd), Ibas recalled his recent visit to the State House of Assembly and promised that it would be completed on time to enable that arm of government to start functioning.
The administrator noted that there is a lot of work to be done and required the support of all leaders at various levels to ensure that desirable governance is delivered to the people.
He said, “Within the limited resources made available to the local government, I want to implore those who are managing those resources to put them to judicious use.
“The people are watching. They want to know exactly what we are doing with their money. We need to limit the damage that is being caused by delivering good governance. I think, once the people are happy with what we are doing, the chances of them taking the law into their own hands will be minimised.”
Commenting on the ongoing road projects, Vice Admiral (Rtd) Ibas said roads are critical infrastructure for development and enhanced commerce in any society, which is why such provision cannot be compromised.
Vice Admiral (Rtd), Ibas stated, “The more roads we have, the more commerce – I mean, the means of commuting becomes easy. We are trying to create wealth. Without roads, of course, sometimes you have your produce, and before you move them to the marketplace, they are all rotten.
“But we also expect that when these roads are completed, those who are going to use them will also take care of the infrastructure,” he added.
