Speaker lampoons Niger Delta legislators
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we have no road connecting southern ijaw to other places in the state no power supply we are not connected to the national grid we have no good hospital1 the speaker bayelsa state house of assembly mr konbowei benson has lampooned legislators from niger delta and described them as ineffective1 benson a two-term speaker in the state assembly said on sunday when he spoke with newsmen at the peoples democratic party pdp secretariat in yenagoa1 the speaker had on thursday picked a nomination form to vie for the house of representatives seat for southern ijaw federal constituency1 he noted that southern ijaw despite being one of the top most local governments producing wealth for the country has yet to have access road electricity hospital and other basic amenities1 the speaker added that these were reasons he was aspiring to the national assembly to attract federal government presence to the area1 as at now there are many things we are still lacking despite our contributions to economic development of nigeria1 he said that the neglect of the niger delta region by successive administrations was due to the ineffective representation by legislators from the region1 nothing to write home about and those are the things that moved me to aspire to represent the area in the house of representatives1 so i will use my experience in legislation which span more than 12 years to attract development to my area he said1 he decried the continued neglect of southern ijaw and other niger delta communities which he said had nothing to show for producing most of the wealth for the nation1 benson said that with good representatives at the national assembly they can attract federal government presence to the area1 how can we produce so much but have nothing to show its pathetic a big oil producing local government like southern ijaw cannot boast of a road even functional hospitals1 someone will spend four or five hours in the water before getting to yenagoa by the grace of god when we get there we will be able to argue our way out1 niger delta and southern ijaw have to be carried along our people have been neglected for long that is why we need quality people at the national assembly people who will bring development to the deprived areas the speaker said. nan1