Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has urged the leadership of the Pan Niger Delta Development Forum (PANDEF) to focus on issues that border on the region’s development in its advocacy as a voice of the region.
Diri gave the admonition yesterday when a delegation of PANDEF led by its new chairman, Amb. Godknows Igali paid him a courtesy visit in the Government House, Yenagoa. He expressed his administration’s commitment to collaborate with the forum to address issues of development bedevilling the Niger Delta region.
The governor stressed that PANDEF needed the collaboration of governors of the region as well as interventionist agencies such as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the proposed South-South Development Commission to succeed.
He said: “PANDEF ought to play a key advocacy role in supporting the South-South Governors Forum. It was a divine arrangement that your meeting in Bayelsa coincided with the just concluded governors’ meeting.
“We must take issues of our development into our hands before waiting to seek external help. That is why in Bayelsa we are showing the example.” Diri, who emerged as the new chairman of the South-South Governors Forum on Tuesday, said he would create a desk and assign an official to interface with PANDEF.
The Bayelsa helmsman stated that he had informed his counterparts in the South-South of the need to collaborate to establish a power project for the zone to attract investments.
On his administration’s part, he highlighted efforts aimed at facilitating the procurement of an independent power plant to enhance socio-economic activities.
