The notion that the demolition of Bayelsa State government’s decrepit property in Port Harcourt was politically driven has been refuted by Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State.
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Instead, he attributed the demolition to the failure of leadership on the part of Bayelsa State.
According to Governor Wike, a letter was sent to the Bayelsa State government in August 2021, requesting that they refurbish the property in line with the Rivers State government’s urban renewal program.
“In August 2021, we wrote to the Bayelsa State government that with urban renewal policy and with the money we have spent, that it will be unfair to us if we allow such property belonging to them to remain there without any, maybe, a new development.”
Governor Wike said he had met severally with Bayelsa State governor Douye Diri and told him to renovate or build a benefitting edifice on the parcel of land because the formal existing structure contravened the Rivers State urban renewal policy.
“I spoke to my colleague, the governor of Bayelsa State, Douyi Diri severally. I said look, it is better you renovate, bring down or build a new thing for your State. I am not claiming that the property belongs to us, but we have a right to talk about development in our State. No State can determine the level of development that should occur in another State.”
“Ask the governor of Oyo State, ask the governor of Adamawa State, we are colleagues. He (Diri) had promised me that in the next three months everything will be done. I took him serious that he meant well for my State and I believed as a colleague he will not deceive me.
“You cannot have property in this prime area and you don’t develop it, and then criminals use it to torment, terrorise and harass innocent people. And tomorrow you will tell me Rivers State is not safe.
“Go to Akasa street, you can see what is going on there. If you are serious government, you cannot allow that. We have no apology. As far as we are concern the place has been brought down, we are building judges quarters there.”
The Rivers State governor said it was disingenuous for the Bayelsa State government to claim that the demolition of its property was politically motivated because the State did not support his presidential bid.
He wondered why the Bayelsa State government has always been antagonistic to anything that concerns Rivers State.
Governor Wike said the ranting of the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Lands that the demolition of his State property in Port Harcourt by the Rivers State government smacks of sheer political vendetta, was rather ludicrous.
According to him, Rivers State had in the past taken possession of abandoned property owned by the Edo State government, Nigeria Railway Corporation and default Nigeria Airways, and was never accused of political vendetta by the affected parties.
