Former lawmaker representing Ogbia constituency 3 in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, and onetime regent of Imiringi community of Ogbia council area, Augustus Osomu, has tasked the state government on achieving development.
The erstwhile legislator said it is one thing to have a state, while it is another to have visionary leadership.
He stated that from 1996 when the state was created, to date, save for concerted efforts by a few previous administrations, no tangible development has come to the state.
Osomu described the pace of both social and infrastructural projects being executed in the state as slow and worrisome, alleging that what is on ground is not commensurate with the huge sums of federal allocations which have accrued to the state overtime.
He lambasted the immediate past administration of former governor Seriake Dickson, regretting that the former administration plunged the state into perennial under development with incessant borrowings which he said it might last longer than expected to offset.
The political stalwart reiterated the importance of appropriate deployment of the finances of the state for its economic benefit, alleging that rather certain leaders are wont to promote tribal extremism in the state, owing to lopsided citing and award of projects and unwarranted public insults on citizens.
Osomu, who was a member of the transition committee of the APC governorship candidate in the 2019 governorship election and former state’s governor-elect, hinted that though his principal, David Lyon, was not sworn-in he had good intentions for the state.
He emphasized that upon their probe into the finances of the state as a committee, investigations revealed that the state which had over a hundred and seventy accounts had just #56,000 left in all as balance.
“I know that Governor Diri is a victim of circumstance. Like some past governors of the state. He may have genuine plans, but his benefactor and friend, former Governor Dickson after the APC victory emptied the state’s treasury in order to punish the supposedly incoming government then. But can you now see what is happening? He is today punishing his friend, Governor Diri”, he alleged.