By Abdulrahman Abdullahi
Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, says the state is not a rich as believed in some quarters.
Diri said this when he received representatives of the Victims Support Fund in his office in Government House, Yenagoa, on Tuesday, stressing that the state was in dire need of assistance from agencies like the VSF.
The VSF officials were in the state to inaugurate three borehole projects executed by the agency in three selected schools namely, Community Secondary School, Otuoke; Community Secondary School, Sagbama; and Kaiama High School.
He lauded the VSF for the gesture and described it as timely and a welcome development, adding that Nigeria needed such initiatives to move the country forward.
The governor commended former President Goodluck Jonathan for setting up the VSF and expressed delight that it had been sustained and was meeting the needs of ordinary Nigerians.
Diri, while appealing for more infrastructure support, said, “Private initiatives like this that support and bring succour to our people are lacking in this country. I am glad that this initiative started when our leader and son was president of this country and it is not dead. This is certainly one of the testimonies of the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
“I appeal to you and our leader, General (Theophilus) Danjuma (retd), to see Bayelsa as one of your own and take it as a priority that in all you are doing Bayelsa should be among one of the first states you have as a priority.”
The chairperson of VSF’s COVID-19 taskforce, Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, said the beneficiary schools would also receive other sanitation consumables.
She told the governor that the mandate of the VSF was to provide more enduring support, specifically sanitation facilities, to ensure that COVID-19 protocols were maintained.
