COMMUNITY REPORT
Lawmaker, Communities Excited Over Gov Diri’s Construction Work On Bridge Abandoned 45 Yrs Ago
- As Lawmaker dole out scholarship, bursary for indigents students
The member representing Ekeremor constituency 1 in the Bayelsa state House of Assembly, Hon. Tari.Porri and indigenes of Alebiri community and other adjourning communities in Ekeremor local government area of the state, have hailed Governor Douye Diri as the
Lalagbini link bridge abandoned about 45 years ago, is near completion.
The bridge, has been on the road map for over 45 years, even before the creation of Bayelsa state but has since been abandoned and making life difficult for indigenes of the communities in the local government area.
According to the member representing Ekeremor constituency 1 in the state house of assembly, Hon. Tari.Porri, who took journalists on a tour of his constituency projects in the community, said his personal experience trying to cross over the bridge motivated him to influence the construction.
Porri, a former Chairman of the central zone of the Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), narrated how his mother once fell from the bridge while he was at her back as a kid.
While thanking the state governor, Senator Douye Diri for graciously approving and funding the life changing bridge, he promised his constituency that through his office, he was going to make the project a reality and in the next two or three weeks, the project will be commissioned.
The house member also gave out scholarship and bursary allowances to over 150 indigant student from the constituency in a project he kick-started immediately after he was sworn-in as a member in 2019.
Porri, who described education as the fabric that sustains development, said anyone who makes education a watch word for others, has built capital development capacity .
He said the project which he started by buying 250 JAMB forms for students in 2019, has now 100 students from the the constituency in the five wards benefitting from the first bursary payments while 20 of them, are on scholarship.
Women where not also left out as member has built a capacity skill acquisition center where women will acquire training in different craft for two months and will be getting starter packs from partners like Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for them to kickstart their lives.
“Touching lives and delivering on campaign promises is a fundamental duty and its a promise that must be kept
“I am particularly excited because this was a promise I made to my people, today it was just a fulfilment of the promise I made when I came seeking for your support that if they graciously elect me I will indeed no doubt support indigene student in this constituency because I understand the consequences upon which I went to the university.
“I could recall how I use to carry sand before I pay my fees , so I understand what it means to support any young man that is an undergraduate in any higher institution in this world”, Porri stated.