First anniversary: Diri promises to upset outstanding liabilities

Nathan Tamarapreye

Barely three days to his first anniversary in office, Gov Douye Diri of Bayelsa has disclosed that he inherited outstanding liabilities for gratuities and pension from his predecessor, Sen Seriake Dickson.

It will be recalled that Diri was sworn in as Bayelsa governor, on February 14, 2020 following a Supreme Court verdict on February 13, 2020 that sacked the erstwhile Governor-Elect Chief David Lyon.

Speaking at an interactive session with newsmen as part of activities for the first anniversary in office, Diri explained that he remains committed to offsetting the pension liabilities.

“This administration came in at a time we had lost hope and God, but in His miraculous way, He gave us a miracle and we came in to behold a floodgate of litigation, which kept us standing on one leg, but we also overcame.

“The year 2020 to some was particularly challenging and awfully bad year, but for us in the present administration it was a very good year because we waded through all the challenges including dwindling revenues.

“We found out that people who have served in the Bayelsa Civil Service and retired were not paid gratuities and pensions and it even extends beyond the immediate past administration.

“So, we resolved to confront the challenge on assumption of office by setting aside N200 million monthly to clear the backlog and from the recent infrastructure refunds, we added another N500 million to offset the arrears.

“We have remained committed to the welfare of both the workforce and retirees to the extent that we take overdrafts from commercial banks to pay salaries when our revenue falls.

“Our wage bill is over N5 billion and sometimes we get N6 billion as allocation and it becomes difficult so we have been facing daunting challenges and we shall complete the three senatorial roads started by my predecessor.

“Also we have injected N1 billion to rehabilitate internal roads we met in deplorable state of disrepair and also we have started a couple of new projects for the benefit of our people,” Diri said.

He called on the media to be objective and offer constructive criticisms to the government as the media was a critical institution in a democracy adding that he remained an advocate of free press.

Diri applauded to a recent criticism that revealed that a contractor engaged to provide solar lights for the Etegwe roundabout in Yenagoa was using substandard materials.

The governor said that he set up an investigation following the reports of poor illumination at the project site and found that rather than use 100 watts solar bulbs, the contractor installed 60 watts bulbs.