PHOTO: BBC

• Stop shifting security responsibility to governors, Wike tells Buhari
• Rivers students protest against alleged neglect of institution

Aggrieved by the deplorable state of Alato Bridge on the Eleme axis of the East West Road, Ogoni youths have given the Federal Government 14-days ultimatum to fix the bridge, failing which they threatened to block the bridge.

Lamenting that the bridge was the only route to the Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone, Port Harcourt Refinery and Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), among others, they warned that if government failed to commence work on the bridge at the expiration of the ultimatum, there would be total collapse of activities in the oil and gas free zone.

“The bridge, which is now over 60 and the only route to the oil and gas free zone, hosts over 300 oil and gas companies. It also connects the neighboring states of Akwa Ibom and Cross River,” they said.

President of Ogoni Youth Federation (OYF), Legborsi Yamabana, decried the neglect of the bridge, which he said, had become a death trap despite its economic importance to the country.

He said the Ogoni people, especially those from Eleme Council, had continued to suffer despite the huge resources in the area.

Representative of Khana/Gokhana Federal Constituency, Dumnamene Dekor, said the essence of the protest was to draw Federal Government’s attention to the dilapidated bridge.

Executive Director of Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), Fynface Dunamene, however, appealed for calm, saying the authorities were making moves to complete the East West road.

BESIDES, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, yesterday, declared that it was unconstitutional for President Muhammadu Buhari to shift the responsibility of securing life and property of Nigerians to the governors.

He said the president, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, should not insist that governors were in charge of security in their states.

Wike, who spoke at the unveiling of the 21kilometres Odufor-Akpoku-Umuoye Road in Etche Council, said such position suggested that the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government has lost grip of strategy to tackle the insecurity and make the country safer for Nigerians.

MEANWHILE, students of the Rivers State College of Health Science and Management Technology embarked on a peaceful protest against the state government’s alleged neglect of the institution.

The angry students, who blocked the Ikwerre Road by Agip Junction, which caused serious gridlock, lamented that they had not bathed for over one week following lack of electricity, which affected their water supply and sanitary systems.