…Delta welcomes dredging of Warri
Ports
Daniel Efe
Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta on Tuesday said the state government was accelerating completion of Ughelli-Asaba dual carriageway to accommodate expected heavy traffic from Warri Port when dredging of second part of Escravos bar would be completed.
The governor made this known at his
quarterly interactive session with newsmen in Asaba, and said that the Federal
Government was undertaking the dredging of the Warri Port stretch.
According to him, my administration is
working round the clock to complete the dualisation of Ughelli-Asaba road
because of its importance in the evacuation of goods from the port.
He said that in May, 2015, there were
some projects that his government chose as priority and that one of them was
the Ughelli-Asaba road.
He explained that the previous
administration had nearly completed Section B of the project, which was divided
into three phases, adding that session C, from Ossissa to Asaba, which was the
area slowing down the completion of the project would be concluded between
November, 2019 and April, 2020.
“Work has started earnestly at the
Section C that is Asaba/Ogwashi-Uku/Ossissa road. All these work are being done
because these roads are very critical to us.
“It is going to ease movement between
Warri and Ughelli, through Asaba to Onitsha and now that our ports are
gradually coming back to life and we are hoping that when the Federal
Government through Nigeria Ports Authority dredges the second part of the
Escravos bar, we will have many more ships coming into Delta.
“This will help to decongest the
Lagos Ports and the working of the roads will come to the rescue of those who
make use of the roads for conveying of goods and services,” Okowa said.
He disclosed that his administration was committed to ensuring
the 2019 budget got 95 per cent performance.
He said “we are working hard to ensure
that we present the 2020 Appropriation Bill not later than the first week of
November.
“We are working with the House of
Assembly to ensure that we have a budget that is transparent and will be
uploaded online because, we want a budget that the people will be able to see,
ask questions on and can trust.
“What we are trying to do is to have
a budget that will be able to have a near 100 per cent achievement or achieve
at least 95 per cent performance.
“We have also introduced the Ministry
of Technical Education, and that is because of the emphasis we are laying on
technical education; we want our children not only to acquire the knowledge of
books, but they should be able to use their hands and their brains to work.
“We have always paid special attention
to technical education; during our first tenure, through the legislation, we
created the Board for Technical and Vocational Education but now that we are
laying further emphasis on this, we have created the Ministry.
“This is so, especially when we have
made a promise to our people that every local government will have at least one
technical college; we have only six at the moment which means that we need 19
more.
“We will be looking forward to the first set which is going to be for nine technical colleges in 2020 supplementary budget and the other 10 technical colleges will come in through the budget of 2021 because, we believe that every student in every local government should have access to technical colleges if they wish to.’’
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On sports, Okowa stated that the State performed another feat by winning the last edition of National Youths Games held recently, adding that the five-year old competition had been won the five times consecutively by the state.
“This is a feat I believe will stay
consistent; we will continue to encourage sports in our primary and secondary
schools.
“You will recall that in early parts
of the year we had a school sports festival for primary and secondary school
children and that is where my love is, to have the ability to catch them young
and to ensure that talents are not lost.
“We are looking forward to going to
Edo State next year to bring back the trophy during the National Sports
Festival.
“Our athletes are working very hard
to win the competition again; so, I want to use this opportunity to
congratulate the state’s Sports Commission and our children for being able to
do us proud,” he said.