The Chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, Barrister George Ariolu, has said that Governor Nyesom Wike’s excellent performance in the last seven years in office was the motivation behind the council’s success story in the last one year on office.
Ariolu said this in an exclusive interview with some senior Editors of The Tide in his office at Rumuodomanya, last Wednesday, as part of the celebration of his one year in office.
He said the governor’s superlative performance was the driving force behind the various people-oriented projects his administration carried out in the last one year in office.
Ariolu said that despite doing his last term in office, Governor Wike was still embarking on people-oriented projects across the state.
According to him,Obio/Akpor is a beneficiary of the numerous bridges and roads embarked upon by the Governor Wike-led administration in the state.
“We are learning from him positively, and it was the basis for our motivation”, he said.
He said that within the last one year,the council had embarked on some people-oriented projects with a view to fulfilling its electioneering campaign promises to the people.
Ariolu reeled out some of these projects to include the provision of alternative power supply to provide steady electricity to the council to motivate the staff to put in their best, adding that to this end,a 500KVA Generator was purchased to ensure a 24hour power supply to the council.
“On assumption of office, the first thing we discovered was that there was no alternative power supply and that was affecting the zeal of the workers to do their work. So,we promised to provide alternative power supply, and within three weeks, we delivered on that promise”.
He said his administration also embarked on the renovation of the council secretariat to provide a conducive working environment for workers as well as ensure improvement in the aestheticsof the secretariat with a view to bringing it to international standard, and give it a facelift.
Ariolu said his administration also provided more office space for staff through the construction of 30-room office complexes, which are now at roofing stage, and would be ready in the next two months.
He said the expansion of the drainages in front of the council’s secretariatwas ongoing to check flooring within the premises, saying that work on the project was 70percent completed.
Ariolu listed other projects to include the fencing of the council’s fish farms at Rumuekini,provision of a waiting house at the Rumuolumeni jetty, which areat various stages of completion,while six transformers were also procured and donated to some communities upon request, adding that more communities would get the similar gesture once resources were available.
In the area of human capacity development, Ariolu said grants were approved and released to 50 doctoral and 50 Master’s degree students each, while 13 law students received N100,000.00 each.
Others include training of nine persons atCharkin Maritime Academy, and approval of N10,000 monthly stipend for them; training of 200 persons in various skills acquisition programme.
Ariolu said the various programmes were not only for indigenes as non-indigenes also benefitted from the council’s policy to build human capacity in the area.
He said the council intended to sustain the yearly grants to post graduate students from the area until the end of his tenure.

By: John Bibor