The Bayelsa government on Wednesday said that the International Cargo Airport slated for inauguration on Thursday was built at a cost of N60bn.

Gov Seriake Dickson made the clarification following claim by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, that the Bayelsa International Airport was built at cost of N120 billion.

The Bayelsa government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have held divergent views on the cost of the project funded from loans obtained commercial banks.

Bayelsa APC Spokesman, Mr Doifie Buokoribo had said that the prohibitive cost of borrowing the funds utilized for the airport at prevailing interest rate of about 27 per cent over a four year tenor pushes the cost above N100 bn.

Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development reportedly told President Muhamadu Buhari that the airport cost the state a whooping N120 bn.

Dickson said that it was most unexpected of a person of the status of a minister of the Federal Republic to feed the President and the Nigerian public with false Information inspired by bitterness.

Dickson said in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, that the Bayelsa Airport was built at a cost of N60 billion and not some imagined figures being dangled by Lokpobiri.

He said that the contract for the Airport was executed by Dantata and Sawoe, a Nigerian firm which could be contacted for the contractual sum.

According to Dickson, it was important to put the records straight and to spare the society from the mischief of misinformation.

Dickson also faulted the claim by Lokpobiri that the Airport was a seasonal facility which was affected by the last flood in the country.

He said that the airport equipped with state-of-the-art and longest runaway in the country was built with the 2012 flood which devastated parts of the country in mind.

He said that the claim by Lokpobiri that the airport was flooded last years was a failed attempt to discredit the achievements of the state government.

“The Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, told President Muhammadu Buhari and the Public that the Bayelsa International Airport was built at a cost of N120 billion.

“The Minister went further to say that the airport is a seasonal airport which was affected by the flood that ravaged Bayelsa and other parts of Nigeria in 2018.

“It would have been logical to ignore the claims of Lokpobiri as the rantings of a politician on a mission to cause mischief through misinformation but for the need to set the records straight in the interest of the discerning public.

“For the records, the Bayelsa International Cargo Airport which is scheduled to have its inaugural flight on Thursday was built at a cost of N60 billion.

“Lokpobiri’s claim that the Airport which was built with a high runway with the 2012 flood in mind, was flooded in 2018, is even more shocking and indeed gives insight into his brand of politics.

“It is a fact beyond contestation that the Bayelsa International Airport was never flooded and therefore cannot be regarded as a seasonal airport as claimed by Lokpobiri.

“I call on Bayelsans and indeed all Nigerians to ignore the spurious claims being made by Lokpobiri about this celebrated feat in Bayelsa, the Ijaw nation and the nation’s aviation sector.” The statement read in part.

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