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Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State.

Having seen through the evil intentions and wickedness of the forces behind the Water Bill the Bayelsa state Government has rejected the bill with a declaration that it will head for the court for an action against the Federal Government.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Ayibaina Duba, and the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Biriyai Dambo (SAN), while making the position of the state government known at a joint press briefing in Yenagoa described the National Water Resources Bill 2020 as another draconian land use decree in disguise.

Pointing out that it would join hands with other progressive forces to resist the bill at all cost, the state government said it would instigate relevant and necessary legal frameworks to reject any law of the national assembly that would come from the bill.

The rejection of the bill and the plan to stop it at the court was a decision taken at the state Executive Council meeting.

They said that the bill that has attracted wide spread condemnation across the because of the nefarious provisions that seek to seize and control the country’s water ways, would be opposed because it negated the rights of Bayelsans , Niger Deltans and several other people in the country whom it seeks to deprive their God-given resources.

According to the commissioners, the immorality in the entire scheme behind the bill is that it seeks to deny indigenes especially the Niger Delta their ancestral lands and the freedom of fishing for business.

Dambo said: “Section 62 of the bill which states that any person who chooses to undertake any of the activities in relation to water resources of this bill, shall be licensed by the commission.

“The essence of this is that this bill seeks to take away the freedom of not just the Niger Delta people but Nigerians at large, so if they start licensing the waterways activities, then you are encroaching on the freedom of the people and that is unacceptable.

“That is why EXCO came to the conclusion that we reject this bill and secondly, we shall also impress on members of the National Assembly from and outside this region to oppose this bill with everything they have.”