The Chairman of the newly constituted Board of Directors for the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority, Alhaji Zakari Idde, said this while inspecting some of the ongoing projects of the Authority in Kwara North Senatorial district of the state.
Alhaji Idde, who led other members of the board to inspect the projects, expressed delight at the level of works done on the projects, describing it as laudable.
He said the projects would help to boost the youth empowerment programme of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, most especially in the diversification of the economy through Agriculture.
Alhaji Idde explained that the visit afforded the Board the opportunity of familiarizing with the activities of the Authority and identify areas where their intervention is needed to fast track the completion of the ongoing projects.
” I am delighted with the level of work done on the ongoing projects. In fact, this is laudable. The projects will help to boost the youth empowerment programme of the present administration and most importantly, the diversification of the economy through Agriculture”
“This visit afforded the Board members of the Authority, the opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the activities of the Lower Niger River Basin Authority and see where our intervention is needed to fast track the completion of the projects”, Alhaji Idde said.
While taking the Board members round the site of the Yashikira dam project , the Managing Director of the Authority, Engineer Adeniyi Saheed Aremu said the Dam has one million cubic meter of water capacity and on completion it is expected to irrigate twenty five hectares of farm land.
Engineer Saheed-Aremu noted that the Dam is also expected to supply water to the host community and its environs.
At Gure Dam, the Managing Director said the Dam, which is at forty percent completion stage also has one million cubic meter of water capacity and on completion it is expected to irrigate two hundred hectares of farm land which can be reviewed to five hundred hectares in the nearest future.
When the team visited the Emir of Yashikira, Alhaji Umar Usman Sabi Kpassi the second in his palace, he lauded the Federal Government’s resolve to bring development to the grassroots.
The Emir, who was delighted to receive them, appreciated the federal Government for locating such a massive project in his community.
He described the temporary dredging of the downstream sector of the dam for the people of the community to access as timely, saying that it will curb the acute scarcity of water the people of the community always experience.
Alhaji Sabi Kpassi also thanked the Authority for the intervention, saying that the Yashikira Dam project would alleviate poverty in the community as the people will have water to drink and for irrigation during dry season.
In his response, the Managing Director of the Authority, Engineer Adeniyi Saheed Aremu, appreciated the Emir for the warm reception, assuring the people of the Yashikira of timely completion of the projec.
Other members of the Board that visited the site include, Hyacinth Okpara Dike, Augustine Muomaife, Sidi Aliyu Lamido, Abdullahi A. Baba and Adeniyi Bodunrin Kunle.
