President, N-Delta minister urged to protect Bomadi shores

Bomadi Community, Delta State, have appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Elder, Godsday Orubebe, to ensure that the multi-billion naira shore protection job approved for Bomadi town is not diverted.

In a meeting convened by their traditional ruler, HRH Maxwell B. Mieyebo, the Bomadi people alleged moves by interests in the Niger Delta Ministry to divert the project to Ogbobagbene community and vowed to resist same. The community said except the President/Minister acts fast, the General Hospital, Government College, the Bomadi Bridge and other critical infrastructure now close to the shoreline faced collapse/extinction from rapidly eroding shores.

Chief Bare Etolor, a Bomadi indigene and immediate past Chairman, Delta Ijaw Elders Council, said since the abandonment of the shore protection project by Tomline Construction Company Ltd in the 1990s, the people of Bomadi contended with landslides that eroded shoreline buildings and roads leading to neigbouring communities.

Etolor further said: “I am not against anybody clamouring for fresh projects to his place but Bomadi deserves attention being not only headquarters since 1948 of the defunct Western Ijaw Division spilling to parts of present Bayelsa State but hosts critical infrastructure like the Bridge needing reinforcement by shore protection for the development of the Ijaw nation”.