Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, has urged residents to be patient about the ongoing installation of the state’s independent power project.
 
According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Daniel Alabrah, the 60-megawatt gas turbine project, whose installation commenced in October this year, was earlier scheduled to be completed by December but suffered some logistical delay.
 
He called on people of the state to have an open mind about the project, which, he said, now requires a new completion date due to unforeseen challenges.
 
Diri, who undertook an on-the-spot-assessment of the project at Elebele in Ogbia Local Council Area yesterday, said he, like other Bayelsans, was also disappointed that the December completion deadline could not be met.
 
He, however, stated that his reaction to the delay had been that of understanding rather than anger, as had been noticed, particularly on social media.
 
‎He said: “You can see I have gone round the whole facility. It was based on the working agreement and information available at my disposal that I gave the December date. But as it is with every human endeavour, we must all have an open mind when it comes to issues, particularly technical matters like this.
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”I am as disappointed as any other Bayelsan because I believed that we were going to celebrate the 2025 Christmas with our own independent power, but it turned out not to be so.
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”I call on Bayelsans to have an open mind. These technical experts are working virtually 24 hours, but delays like this will certainly come.”
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The state’s helmsman implored the people to appreciate the work of the engineers, stressing that a minor mistake could jeopardise the millions of dollars expended on the project.