Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State says the state-owned Cargo Airport will be ready for commissioning by December 2019, explains that what delayed full commencement of flights operation in the airport was the tedious process of granting license from the regulatory agencies.
Dickson while conducting newsmen around the facilities at the airport yesterday, dismissed insinuation by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole that the newly constructed Cargo Airport is being flooded.
The governor disclosed that the expended acquisition of land, clearing, sand filling and actual construction of the airport is N70 billion, different from the N100 billion Oshiomhole accused the state government of spending to build the airport.
Oshiomole during a meeting with the past Minister of State for Agriculture and APC governorship candidate, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and some state governors yesterday accused Dickson of spending N100 billion on the flooded airport.
He said: “It is clear from this visit that former Governor Adams Oshiomole of Edo State lied when he was quoted as having said that the Airport runway is flooded, all the visitors confirmed that the 3.5km runway was high above flood level.
“So the question is why is a fellow South-South person deliberately maligning another governor from the region, is this the way to play politics, even with the development of the people.
“This is the height of floods in Bayelsa State, but as you can see, there is no flood here, we reclaimed this parcels of land before starting the construction, this airport has one of the best runways in this country, so we will not join Oshiomole in playing politics.” He said.
The manager from Dantata and Sawoe construction company, Mr Andrea Battistelli, said that the airport is well constructed and can never be flooded, although it’s situated in a difficult terrain of Bayelsa state.
