Diri Faults Duke Over Coastal Highway, Says Swampy Terrain Is No Barrier

Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has rejected former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke’s claim that the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is unbuildable through Bayelsa because of its swampy terrain, insisting that the project is technically feasible and vital to the development of coastal communities.

Duke had reportedly argued during a television interview that the 750-kilometre highway could not pass through Bayelsa without hundreds of bridges because of the state’s extensive swamps and waterways.

But Diri, in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, expressed disappointment that a former governor from the South-South region would make such a claim, describing it as politically motivated and inconsistent with infrastructure developments in Bayelsa.

The governor said Duke was not sufficiently familiar with recent road and bridge projects executed by his administration across the state’s challenging terrain.

He cited the Nembe-Brass Road, Sagbama-Ekeremor-Agge Road and Yenagoa-Oporoma Road, as well as the 630-metre Angiama Bridge across River Nun, as examples of infrastructure projects delivered across swamps, mangroves and waterways.

Diri also listed the dualised Glory Drive and roads in New Yenagoa City among projects demonstrating the possibility of constructing major infrastructure in the state.

He maintained that the coastal highway was achievable and would improve connectivity, stimulate economic activities and open up riverine communities across the nine coastal states along its route.

According to the governor, the project has been a longstanding demand of the Ijaw National Congress since the 1990s, but the administration of President Bola Tinubu is the first to take concrete steps towards its realisation.

Diri said the importance of the highway to the Ijaw people and other coastal communities was among the reasons he joined the All Progressives Congress, adding that he wanted to advance the interests of his people through the project.

The governor reiterated that the swampy nature of Bayelsa should not be used to dismiss a project he considers critical to the region’s infrastructure and economic development.