Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, a rights group in Delta State, on Monday called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to complete the deserted permanent site of Delta Marine School of Marine Technology, Burutu Local Government Area.

National President of the group, Mr., Austin Ozobo, in a statement, said: “It is our candid appeal that the abandoned permanent site project of Delta State School of Marine Technology, Burutu, be completed without further delay.”

“It is wrong that Governor Okowa and other previous governments of the state do not take Ijaw riverine areas development serious. We are calling on the governor to mobilize the contractor back to the site and if it is the contractor that is responsible for the abandonment of the project, the contract should be revoked and be given to another competent company, while the erring contractor is for arrest for contract scam.

“We want to say that failure by Okowa to do the needful, we may embark on a peaceful protest march in Burutua and Asaba to tell the world the level of injustice we are facing.

“The permanent site project was awarded by his predecessor, Dr Emmanauel Uduaghan, and abandoned after take-off. We (IPDI) protested and the contractor was mobilized back to the site, and the project was raised to the second story decking level and since then, the project has been abandoned to date,” the group added.

It noted: “The economic importance of Burutu surpasses economic contributions of other local government areas in the state, whereas the governor is starving them of meaningful engagement and development, but deem it fit to spread critical developmental projects in areas that do not produce a drop of oil.”

“This is a sign of huge neglect, political and economic marginalization from successive governments in the state. What we get as a people is not commensurable to our huge economic contributions to the state’s internally generated revenue, IGR, and federal allocation,” IPDI added.

“The importance of this project cannot be overemphasized. The school since its establishment is occupying a civic center owned by the Burutu community. The civic center was built for community use and not for school use.

However, the community cannot put the place to use since the school is occupying it, defeating the purpose of the civic center in the Burutu community. It is just unfortunate that the school now makes use of Burutu Grammar School for lecture space.

“The civic center also does not have the needed space and housing facilities to address office accommodation needs. There are no enough lecture halls for lectures. Lots of staff in the school do not have office space. About five or more teaching staff squat in one office. Others, who do not have office space to squat have turned lecture halls to office,’ the group grumbled.