Chairmen of Community Development Committees in Bayelsa State have been urged to scale up efforts at protecting government facilities in their communities from being vandalized.
The state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, gave the charge at the weekend when a delegation of the Bayelsa State CDC Chairmen Association paid him a courtesy visit in Government House, Yenagoa.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr Doubara Atasi, the Deputy Governor reminded the CDC chairmen of the need to work closely with their paramount rulers and security agencies in the maintenance of peace and security.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo noted that communities where critical public and corporate assets such as school facilities, electricity power cables and transformers as well as oil pipelines are vandalized with reckless abandon, eloquently signposts the kind of leadership they have.
While appreciating the creation of the association to give a voice to CDC chairmen in the state, the Deputy Governor admonished them to avoid working at cross-purposes with their paramount rulers.
He also advised that the Association should be structured in such a way to enable incumbent CDC chairmen occupy and run its executive organ, given the high turnover of CDC leadership in their respective communities.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the Bayelsa State CDC Chairmen Association, Chief Koto Andrew Omiloli, said the association was formed in 2018 to work with government and attract the dividends of good governance to the grassroots.
Chief Omiloli, who assured government of the association’s readiness to perform complementary role in policy formulation and implementation, appealed to the state government to provide them an office space in Yenagoa.
In another development, the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, has restated his call on clergymen to keep faith with their ecclesiastical calling by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ without fear.
He made the call while granting audience to a delegation of the Interdenominational College of Bishops and Ministers at his office in Yenagoa.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, who thanked the body for its steadfastness in praying for the state, however, urged gospel preachers not to dilute the message of salvation for any reason.
According to the Deputy Governor, it is by practising love and maintaining an uncompromising stand in warning people of the everlasting consequences of sin that the Church could win sinners for Christ.
In their separate remarks, the head of the College, Bishop Emmanuel Orji, its Provost, Bishop Apudu, and Archbishop S.E. Overy, said the Christian Community in Bayelsa was pleased with the activities of the Prosperity Government in terms of development efforts and interest in the work of God.
They promised that the group would continue to uphold the state and the government in their prayers and enjoined the present administration to sustain and strengthen its relationship with the church.
