BDI carpets Bayelsa for abandoning state-owned assets

• Published date: 20 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Bayelsa Development Initiative (BDI) has carpeted the Governor Douye Diri-led state government for allegedly abandoning assets, programmes, projects and policies designed to revitalise the economy, empower youths and create employment opportunities.

The National Coordinator, Udengs Eradiri, in a statement yesterday, wondered what had happened to the Bayelsa Oil Company (BOC) Ltd, which was once active and caused traffic on Otiotio Road in Yenagoa.

Describing the BOC as a graveyard, Eradiri, a former commissioner in the ministries of Youths and Environment, claimed that virtually all state-owned companies, established with the laudable aims of improving the economy, had become moribund.

He decried the conditions of Bayelsa Dredging Company (BDC), Bayelsa Plastic Company (BPC) and Bayelsa Property Development Company (BPDC), saying they had become inactive.

Eradiri said media outfits owned by the state such as Bayelsa TV and Bayelsa Newspaper Corporation had either been abandoned to rot away or neglected to function without the required equipment.

He said: 'The New Waves, our local tabloid that employed hundreds of people, has gone moribund. Ernest Ikoli Media Centre inaugurated recently to accommodate state-owned media outfits is like a whitewashed tomb.

'It is simply a mere structure without furnishing and equipment to keep the media outfits in them running. What exactly is Governor Diri doing with our collective resources?'

Eradiri said nothing tangible was happening at the 60,000 ton-capacity Cassava Processing Plant at Ebedebiri, 45,000 bird poultry farm and Bayelsa 500 pond fish farm.

He noted: 'There are other laudable initiatives that could have engaged many 'Bayelsans' and stimulated the economy for growth. But they have all been rendered inactive and abandoned by the Diri administration. Unfortunately there is no strategic and deliberate plan by the state government to revive them.

'The North is quietly preparing for the post oil...