TUE, 18 OCT, 2022-theGBJournal| His Excellency, Senator Douye Diri, Governor of Bayelsa State Monday visited Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the State. IDP camps visited were Oxbow Lake, Igbogene, and Okolobiri.
The Governor also undertook an aerial view of Biseni and Sampou to the East-West road with a chopper to ascertain the level of damage by the ravaging flood.
Addressing the Internally Displaced Persons at Igbogene, Governor Diri said the flood is a natural disaster that is not caused by either State or the Federal Government.
The Governor admonished them to be more careful in this season citing that this year’s flood is unprecedented and has led to the loss of several lives in the State.
Speaking to newsmen after an aerial view of Biseni and Sampou, the Governor said the situation is the same everywhere.
He also called on business owners to empathize with Bayelsans and be their brother’s keepers as the price of foodstuffs and Petroleum products have gone high.
Governor Diri, therefore, charged petroleum marketers to sell at government-regulated prices as he has directed badges to load petroleum products from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa as a result of the road being cut off by the flood.
“Well, we have not gone around fully but the few places we overflew, it is the same story everywhere. There are two communities you can’t even believe your eyes, Biseni in particular, most of the houses are on the rooftop. And interestingly, we saw one community from afar that is the same as Biseni and I made a comment that that community is finished interestingly that turned out to be my community when we got very close, so it is the same story everywhere. People are living in the inhuman condition we saw a lot of places. We even went as far as the broken East-West road where we have been separated from the rest of the world, so it is pathetic, it is something that you can’t even wish your enemy, but that is our fait for now.
On the hike in fuel prices, let me use this opportunity to call on all of us who are business owners, this is the time that you can give your products, where possible, free, that you can now buy petroleum products as high as N700 per liter, it is unacceptable and a bag of rice as high as N50000. These are products that have been there even before the flood so nobody can convince me that they have bought them at such as exorbitant rate.
I like to call on our people to be those who will be their brother’s keepers and to have empathy for the poor Bayelsans.
However, the State Government has also taken proactive steps, just today I have given directives for a badge since we cannot have transport through the roads, I have directed the Honourable Commissioner for Mineral Resources and Petroleum products to ensure that we have a badge that will load petroleum products from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa.
And again, I like to appreciate the security agencies who have also promised to give us security cover for those badges that will be loading from Port Harcourt to Yenagoa. This product will be sold at government-regulated prices and we are going to do the same even for the foodstuffs so that some chillout traders will be cut-off. We don’t want our people who are already on the ground to continue to suffer hike in petroleum products that they do not even have the money to purchase”, Governor Diri stated.
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