Yenagoa—Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, on Monday has expressed dissatisfaction over the silence of the House of Representatives on the recent oil spill in Nembe Local Government Area of the state.
Governor Diri spoke when he received the House Committee On Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board during a courtesy visit to Government House, Yenagoa.
The governor who himself was a former member of the Green Chamber, recounted his experience in the House and urged the members to bring back the vibrancy of old in the Lower House of the National Assembly.
Daniel Alabrah, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor in a statement, quoted Diri as saying there was nowhere in the world an oil spill would last for over a month and the people’s representatives would be silent.
Governor Diri stated that all persons ought to raise a motion and speak on the spill regardless of where they are from, likening it to Boko Haram insurgency and banditry ravaging the North and how every member had raised motions to see to its end.
Diri said: “I like to observe that as a part of you, the vibrancy I used to see in the House appears to be extinguishing. Please, let that spirit be revived.
“I stand by what I said during the period of the oil spill. There is nowhere in the world an oil spill of such magnitude will occur and the legislators would be silent. I drew a parallel with the oil spill ten years ago in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Here in the creeks of Bayelsa, we had a gushing oil spill for more than one full month and there was a loud silence from my own constituency, the Green Chamber. So, let us revive that vibrancy again.”
The governor commended the partnership between the state and the Simbi Wabote-led Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
He said the Board was the only real federal presence within the state capital of Yenagoa.
Speaking earlier, the chairman of the House Committee on Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring, Legor Idagbo, noted that the lawmakers were in the state on oversight duties on the NCDMB.
He expressed satisfaction over the fruitful interactions with the Board and stressed that it is their constitutional responsibility and part of their legislative function to strengthen the NCDMB and sponsor bills in line with current realities.
He commended Governor Diri for his partnership with the NCDMB by providing infrastructure at the Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre project, for ensuring peace and stability at the Board’s headquarters and every of its other project sites in the state.
