Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has vowed to take the Sagbama/Ekeremor Road to Ekeremor town by December, next year.
Dickson said that he had also awarded the electrification project along the road from Ofoni in Sagbama Local Government Area to Ekeremor Town, headquarters òf Ekeremor Local Government òf the state.
The governor had broken a 40-year-old jinx on Saturday October 14, 2017, when he led a convoy of SUVs to the then newly sand-filled road to Aleibiri in Ekeremor Local Government Area for the first time.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, quoted Dickson as having made the promise while visiting Aleibiri, Ofoni, Ayamasa and other communities along the Sagbama/Ekeremor Road on Christmas Day.
Dickson, on Sunday drove, in a convoy of small cars to Aleibiri and the other communities on the alignment, to celebrate Christmas with the people in fulfilment of a promise he made during an earlier visit that, the road would be taken to Aleibiri in December, 2017.
Thousands of cheering leaders and members of the communities thronged out to thank the governor for making it possible for cars to drive into the communities 40 years after the road project which was initially conceived as a federal project
The governor told the ecstatic crowd of people of the communities that he decided to visit them on Christmas Day in fulfilment of a promise when he drove in a convoy of SUVs to the communities in October 2017.
He vowed that the state government would ensure that a lane of the road was constructed to Ekeremor by December, 2018 to alleviate the suffering of the people.
Dickson said that while efforts were still ongoing to complete work on the ongoing project, it was crucial that no indigene of the area was made to travel by the waterways through Delta State to other parts of Bayelsa State.
According to the governor, he decided to split the contract between the contractors for the purpose of speedy completion of the long awaited road project.
He explained that the company to undertake the construction of bridges on the road is expected to mobilise to site in the first week of January, 2018.
Dickson urged the members, especially youths of the community, to organise themselves to ensure that criminal elements were not allowed to carry out acts that could slow the actualisation of the project.
The governor also urged members of the community to give the requisite support to the governing council, the rector, students and lecturers of the newly established State Polytechnic at Aleibiri.
The spokesman of the Aleibiri federated communities, Chief Justice Inarigha, commended the governor for the political will to embark on targeted projects that had impacted on the lives of the people of the area.
