Yenagoa—The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Central Zone has berated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), over the exclusion of Bayelsa State from the list of 21 federal roads approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to be rehabilitated by the corporation across the country.
This was contained in a statement signed by the IYC central zone chairman, Comrade Clever Inodu, and sent to Mangrovepen.ng.
The IYC chairman faulted the NNPC for “channeling all the available resources for the road infrastructure development on petroleum energy distribution alone without recourse to connecting major petroleum activity destinations to the rest of the country.”
According to him, the neglect of Bayelsa is an indication that the state has never “been on the framework of the corporation even though it is among states in the top chart of petroleum activities in the country.”
Inodu berated the federal government for abandoning the Nembe-Brass road since 1973, stating that the road if completed will provide easy access to the Brass Fertilizer and Petrochemical Project, Atlantic modular refinery, Okpoama, Brass Petroleum Product Terminal, inter alia.
He described the omission of Bayelsa from the list of 21 federal roads as marginalization of the state by the NNPC.
While urging the NNPC to reconsider its stance on the Nembe-Brass road, the IYC Chairman also called on the federal government and its agencies to expedite action in constructing federal roads in Bayelsa State.
Inodu also called on companies doing business in the state to take advantage of Executive Order No. 007 of 2019 and carry out road construction and rehabilitation in the state.
