Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state has said the state government is speedily pursuing the completion of the Ughelli-Asaba dual carriageway to accommodate the expected heavy traffic from the Warri Port when dredging of the second part of the Escravos Bar would have been completed.
The Governor made this known at his quarterly interactive session with newsmen in Asaba, where he said the federal government was undertaking the dredging of the Warri Port stretch.
He said his administration was working round the clock to complete the dualisation of the Ughelli-Asaba road because of the important role it would play in the evacuation of goods from the port, adding that the road was one of the priority projects of his administration upon assumption of office in 2015.
Okowa explained that the previous administration had almost completed Sector B of the project, which was divided into three phases, while Sector C, from Ossissa to Asaba, which was slowing down work on the project would be completed between November, 2019 and April, 2020.
He disclosed that his administration was committed to ensuring that the 2019 budget got 95 per cent performance, pointing out that the 2020 budget proposals would be presented to the State House of Assembly by the first week of November, 2019.
The Governor stated that the executive arm was working with the House of Assembly to produce a transparent budget that would be uploaded online, stressing that he wanted a budget that people could see, ask questions about and trust, with expected 95 percent to 100 percent performance.
Okowa told the Press that his administration introduced the Ministry of Technical Education because of the emphasis it placed on technical education; with a view to letting children not only to acquire the knowledge of books, but also to be able to use their hands and their brains to work.
He recalled that a Technical and Vocational Education Board was created in his first tenure with a legislation of the State House of Assembly, upgraded six Technical Colleges and made a promise that every local government area in the state would have at least one Technical College, to bring the number to 25.
The Governor revealed that the first set of nine Technical Colleges would be provided for in the 2020 supplementary budget, while the other 10 would be funded with the 2021, to give access to every student who would want to take to technical education.
On sports, Okowa stated that the State performed another feat by winning the last edition of the National Youths Games held recently, adding that the five year old competition had been won consecutively by Delta state.
Okowa congratulated the State’s Sports Commission and the athletes for doing the state proud in Ilorin, and disclosed that the state was already getting set to win the next edition of the National Sports Festival to be hosted by Edo state.
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