I’ll not be derailed by politics of 2023 – Okowa
By Gabriel Elozino
Delta state governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has assured Deltans of completion of all ongoing projects in the state, maintaining that he will not be derailed by 2023 politics in the state.
Governor Okowa stated this when he inspected the ongoing construction of Koka flyover and interchange in Asaba, the state capital on Wednesday.
According to Okowa, “while I play politics, I will not forget that Deltans voted me in to serve them and until the very last day, 28th of May, 2023 I will be focused to service the people.
“The truth is that the projects are very dear to me, the projects that we are inspecting, and we are going to continue in the inspection of projects. One good thing about inspection of projects is that it gives you a first hand knowledge of what is being done, and then it gives you an opportunity to ask questions from both the ministry and the contractor and time line of what they could achieve.
“So indirectly, I am putting both the ministry and the contractor under pressure to finish on time and to finish a quality work that is the first and most important thing to me. It is not about politics.”
The governor, who was accompanied to the inspection by the state’s deputy governor, Barr. Kingsley Otuaro, was conducted round the project by the representatives of the company handling the project, CCECC and the state Commissioner for Works in charge of Highways and Urban, Mr Noel Omodon.
While expressing satisfaction with the level of work done so far by the firm, Okowa said, “they have drill 16 of the pipes that they are supposed to drill, which shows that work is actually ongoing.
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“Actually I have also said to them, because they have given us a January, 2023 finish date and I am telling them that I am not comfortable with that because I would at least like to have the project commissioned during my time and January 2023 there will be a lot of campaign.
“We may not even have time not to talk of commissioning of project. So we just have to work out a process which I have said to him that they may need to work even at night.
“I have just asked the senior management to see me early next week so that we look at the possibility of adding on to the equipments that they have here.
“Obviously they have very rich equipment as we can see. I believe with the quality and capacity that they have they can definitely meet up with approved time and we are going to work towards that, so that we are able to finish the interchange within this year, and it does not spill over into next year.
“Because we are also looking at a situation whereby the dualisation coming from Ogwashi-Uku, through Ibusa to Asaba is going to be completed in the next few months and that also is going to put pressure on this project.
“So there is a need to ensure that there is early finish so that we don’t have a chaotic situation. But all the same, I want to thank them for the work they are doing; it’s a clean work, they are working well, apart from the short break during the Christmas season and I hope that they will add speed and make up for all those lost time. And I pray that we can stay on course and ensure that this project is completed before the end of this year.”
