Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, APC National Chairman, has challenged Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State to render account for the N100 billion Yenegoa Airport project.

The Governor had during the grand campaign rally of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Yenegoa, on Tuesday, accused the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari of playing politics with the completed Yenegoa Airport project.

Oshiomhole, however, claimed that the project was substandard and inflated with the aim to steal from the people of Bayelsa, adding that the November 16 poll is an opportunity for the people to hold the governor to account.

Oshiomhole claimed that the recent flooding of the runway of the new Airport project was a testimony that the project was substandard, and challenged Governor Dickson to test-run the tarmac using his own aircraft.

“You know the fact that Bayelsa Airport has been flooded. Is it Buhari that flooded the airport? Because the runway is below the ground level, they ought to have carried out a proper survey. So, the runway is flooded with water because it was not built properly.

“Now, if President Buhari was to stop it, what stopped the governor by himself, flying his private flight to do a testing flight at the airport? He, himself doesn’t fly there. We challenge Dickson to use his own plane to test-run and land on that airport.

“We challenge Dickson to prove that when the airport was flooded, that the flood was caused by Buhari. We challenge him to show the kind of control tower he has built.

“Truth is, we challenge him, whether it was Buhari who asked him to inflate the contract because there are different versions of the actual cost. That contract, I put it to my dear friend and brother, Dickson, that it has entered Guinness World Records as the most expensive runway ever built anywhere in the world.

“Even the one they built from the river, from the sea, it didn’t cost half of that. So, it is an endless project. He shouldn’t throw blame. But you the media should also interrogate when these people make all these unsubstantiated allegations.

“So, the truth is, he’s in trouble. He cannot tell his people why he will spend close to a hundred billion (N100bn) for a facility such as that. Yet, he himself cannot land on it. You people should not allow merchant of half-truths to get away with blue murder. Dickson must account for that money, not because of the election but he owes his people.”

Earlier while appraising campaigns of the two major political parties Governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru who leads APC campaign in Bayelsa, said the party had given a good account of its stewardship creditably before the voters.

He dismissed the accusation by Governor that APC is playing games with the commissioning of the airport project. (Independent)

Update news