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Jonathan hails Diri on projects, calls for harmony in Nembe

Nembe— Former president Goodluck Jonathan Monday commended Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State for executing the Elebele bridge in Elebele community and the Nembe Unity bridge linking Ogbolomabiri and Bassambiri.

Jonathan while inaugurating the bridge in Nembe, lauded Diri and noted that the unity bridge project would help to maintain the peace and unity between both communities.

He said Diri had done well in the area of infrastructure development in his short stay in office.

Jonathan described the bridge as symbolic and urged the people of Nembe to learn to resolve their differences amicably, especially during elections rather than play politics of brigandage and violence.

He said: “You have done well to complete this bridge project. I had to come and identify with this unique ceremony. Today should mark the end of any inter-communal conflict.

“The importance of this bridge cannot be over-emphasized. From what I have seen, this bridge is expensive, well-built, and solid. And I hope it will solidify the unity between the people of the two communities. 

“Politics should be a platform to bring development to our people and not to kill and chase them away from their communities. With the commissioning of this bridge, we pray that that brand of politics would also come to an end.”

Speaking during the inauguration, Diri said the Nembe bridge had been on the drawing board since the 1960s.

Diri noted that the former governor of the state and current Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, started the construction work but the project was left till his administration took it over and completed it.

The governor described the bridge as historic and said the project would heal wounds and engender peace and unity among the people of Nembe.

“My administration felt this is one historic and a significant infrastructure that would help heal wounds. It is not only a physical bridge but a human bridge, especially between the brothers of Ogbolomabiri and Bassambiri.

“Wherever there is war, development suffers and we lose not only infrastructure but human lives.”

Earlier, the former president and the governor visited the Amanyanabo of Nembe, Mingi XII, King Edmund Daukoru, in Ogbolomabiri and Amanyanabo of Opu-Nembe, Ogbodo VIII, King Biobelemoye Josiah, in Bassambiri. 

King Daukoru in his remarks noted that what the bridge represented far outweighed the physical length of the project as there had been age-old differences between the two communities.

He lauded Diri for completing projects that he started as well as those inherited from his predecessors, describing the gesture as a mark of true leadership.

However, King Daukoru also appealed for the construction of the Nembe-Brass road, among others.

Similarly, King Josiah in his comments, commended the governor for the bridge project, noting that before its construction, there had been temporary bridges.

He solicited the government’s support for the provision of electricity and pipe-borne water.

Also, speaking to journalists, the immediate past deputy governor of the state, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (rtd), who hails from Nembe, gave thumbs up to the Diri administration for constructing the unity bridge.

Jonah said it was the first time since 1971 that a proper bridge had been built to connect both communities.

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