Bayelsa Govt worried about FG's withdrawal from airport project

 Bayelsa Govt worried about FG's withdrawal from airport project

The Bayelsa government says the withdrawal of the federal government from its airport project was worrisome and was delaying the project.

The state government disclosed on July 16, 2016 that the federal government has abandoned construction work on its part of the ongoing Yenagoa International Airport project it is assisting the state to build.

Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure,Mr Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, made the disclosure during a tour of some ongoing projects embarked on by the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration.

The tour was aimed at showing a group of visiting investors around some of the projects with a view to striking investment partnership with the government.

Ewhrudjakpo said that the federal government which had the obliged to build the terminal building of the airport left construction site about two years ago.

"The terminal building is being handled by the federal government. As you are aware, the federal government has left site for almost two years running now or more, so that's not a project we have control over", he said.

He said that the Dickson government would construct a temporary terminal building which would later be converted to an executive protocol lounge.

He said that the government was optimistic some airplanes could land on the airport in November this year when a test-run would be carried out with the aid of a mobile control tower.

"So ,what we are trying to do in the recent past is that we are going to build a small temporary terminal building which we will convert to executive protocol launge.

"Anytime the Federal Government wants to build their terminal building, we can actually allow them build it.

"But we are going to build a temporary one, we will build something like the helipad terminal building but slightly bigger than the helipad because we have arrival and departure.

"By the time we want to do the test run, we will bring a mobile control tower. With a mobile control tower they can tell the plane to land. So, will do that for plane to land because we are still constructing the control tower", Ewhrudjakpo said.

According to him, the government was in a hurry to test-run the airport to prove a point that not one Naira of this project has been diverted from this project.

"Some people have said that the governor used the money for re-election. If he used it for election, the contractors would have even left site now", he said.