Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has urged his counterpart in Bayelsa State, Governor Douye Diri, to strengthen the BRACE Commission to tackle security and other challenges facing the Southsouth geopolitical zone.
Gov. Fubara spoke when Diri led a delegation from Bayelsa to pay him a Christmas visit at the Government House, Port Harcourt on Saturday, December 28, 2024.
He said efforts by only Rivers and Bayelsa to resolve some issues would be futile if the BRACE Commission failed to establish synergy in all the six states in the zone.
He said: “One assignment I would plead with our leader, the governor, to do is to strengthen the BRACE Commission. The BRACE Commission has the interest of our zone. So we can’t talk about resolving crime alone in Rivers State because if you do that, they might run to Akwa Ibom in the day time and return in the night.
“So, there must be synergy in all the six states of the BRACE Commission, which is the only way to resolve most of our problems. So, you have fully taken up this assignment and let’s see what we can record before we leave because the only thing that can speak for us are those things that we have added that bring changes to the lives of our people”.
Gov. Fubara insisted that there is no need for any issue to cause tension between Bayelsa and Rivers noting that the two states cannot afford to leave in isolation.
“There is no difference between Rivers and Bayelsa State. We are one, especially my identity as a person is more of Bayelsa. As a governor of Rivers State, it will be out of place if I don’t have that understanding; that friendship and family relationship with a brother state, which also is a son out of the old Rivers State”, he said.
He recalled that the leaders of Rivers before the present political dispensation were all from Bayelsa adding that Rivers story will not be complete without Bayelsa.
“So when His Excellency, was saying we had an understanding, that is the right thing to do. What are we fighting for? Issues of life is just about understanding we are not going to leave this earth with anything but the legacy we leave is building of relationship and solving problem with love and not with bitterness.
Giving more reasons why Rivers must partner Bayelsa, Gov. Fubara said: “If there is any development issue in this State if we don’t work with Bayelsa we can’t sustain the development. The truth about it is that a good number of people living here are people from Bayelsa. They might work administratively there but they reside here. So if we’re developing this state it is also for the interest and better lives of Bayelsans”.
Describing governance as a shift job, Gov. Fubara said leaders should learn to leave at the expiration of their tenures adding that only their legacies would speak for them after they leave office.
Gov. Fubara said Diri’s visit will strengthen their relationship and show to the world that there is a synergy between Bayelsa and Rivers.
The governor vowed that they would continue to do their best to protect the treasures in the zone for the interest of the country adding that as leaders they had the responsibility to protect the oil investments offshore and onshore.
Gov. Fubara pointed out that they will continue to spend huge sums of money on internal security because of the volatility of the area to ensure peace.
In his remarks, Diri appraised the understanding between the two states since Gov. Fubara took over governance and said all the issues dividing the two states had been amicably resolved.
He said: “I like to also put on record that since you came onboard it has been very peaceful, between our two states. We have had a whole lot of understanding even in areas where we had some previous disagreements.
“I want to make a particular reference to the Soku oil well that generated a whole lots of heats between our two states. We have agreed that we should go back to the status quo before whatever that happened transpired.
“We have both directed our attorney-generals to take charge of that and they have also done the needful. So there is relative peace between Bayelsa and Rivers states concerning the Soku oil wells.
“In the same vein, at a point we had issues with Rivers State because our property was being destroyed here and most of our boys threatened to move to Rivers State and face the bullets but I dissuaded them and said we could not go violent.
“Rather, we have to follow the law. So, we instituted a case against Rivers in the Supreme Court because matters between states actually go to the Supreme Court and that case was on, but as he came onboard again we have met and solutions are now being sought to that matter”.
Diri noted that the best type of leadership was finding solutions to problems especially between brothers, neighbours and friends adding that Rivers and Bayelsa shared a lot in common.
Senator Diri told Gov. Fubara that recently the transmission lines from Imo to Rivers state were vandalised at Ahoada axis throwing Bayelsa into six months of darkness.
He said after his government’s interventions to fix the lines, he directed his Deputy Governor to meet with his counterpart in Rivers to resolve the interstate boundary disputes between the two states in Ahoada.
He said: “We were able to resolve all the outstanding issues and today they have agreed to have a joint surveillance of the TCN lines from Bayelsa to Rivers State so that nobody will vandalise those things anymore. This is very instructive and that is why as a people we must work together.
Gov. Diri said the visit was a payback to Gov. Fubara similar gestures last year when he led his entourage to visit him at his country home in Bayelsa during Christmas.
