Ijaw Publishers’ Forum, (IPF), has challenged the
Delta State government to publish projects its claimed are allocated to Ijaw
communities in the 2025 state budget.
Delta State Director-General on Orientation and
Communication, Dr. Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe, had on a Lagos-based radio
claimed that the 2025 budget of N979billion contained massive projects for Ijaw
riverine communities.
Latimore also stated on the same radio programme that
‘
‘governor Oborevwori had empowered over 250,000
Entrepreneurs, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through D-CARES
programme ministry of women affairs and State Bureau for Wealth and Job
creation.”
Reacting to Oghenesivbe’s claims, the IPF, in a
statement signed by its president, Austin Ozobo, on Tuesday, described the
claim as false, adding that the oil-rich riverine Ijaw communities in the state
have been victims of marginalisation.
“
The government runs on lies and propaganda and
that a responsible government feels in the pains of the people and not to do a
disservice which may add more injury to the unbearable pains of the people with
audio projects,”
the statement added.
The group emphasised that Delta Ijaw communities have
been victims of such “beautiful lies of fake (audio) projects” over the years.
IPF added that the Ayakoromo bridge project had over
the years suffered such lies.
The IPF, while expressing anger at such remarks,
further viewed it as a scam.
The group stressed that Ijaw riverine communities and
its group with over 30 registered media enterprises are not aware of such
opportunities.
The IPF, while challenging the Director-General to
publish and name numbers and location of such projects and benefiting
enterprises and businesses, viewed the remarks as a recurrent decimal to
defraud the Delta Ijaw by successive administrations in the state.
IPF noted, ”
We will not take such media charades any longer,
seeing audio projects beautifully crafted by media engineers like Dr. Fred
Latimore Oghenesivbe who is good at propaganda, playing politics with the Ijaw
development in the state.”
IPF described the political propaganda as a great
disservice to the Ijaw nation, which according to the body, was aimed “
boosting the ego and image of his pay master.”
The group lamented that Delta Ijaw riverine
communities are suffering with no tangible development to count on, from the
time of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and Okowa administrations.
The statement reads in part, ‘
‘We want the Governor Chief Sheriff Oborevwori
led administration to publish names of projects allocated for the Delta Ijaw
riverine communities per local government area and money allocated for the
Ayakoromo bridge project in the 2025 N979 billion approved budget.
“We also challenge the governor and his aide to
publish the names of entrepreneurs and amount of materials or money given to
those who benefited from the Ijaw riverine communities in his over 250,000
entrepreneurs, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through D-CARES
programme ministry of women affairs and the State Bureau for Wealth and Job
creation under his administration.”
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