This enduring legacy began in the early 1980s when Chief Okilo, then governor of the old Rivers State, demonstrated remarkable audacity.
By Sam Ovie
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Published on October 15, 2026
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3 min read
As Bayelsa State turned 30 on October 1, 2026, one enduring legacy now stand as a powerful thread connecting its past to its present, the vision of gas-powered electrification first championed by the late Chief Melford Okilo.
This enduring legacy began in the early 1980s when Chief Okilo, then governor of the old Rivers State, demonstrated remarkable audacity.
To harness the region’s vast natural gas resources for local development, he established the Imiringi Gas Turbine plant, a 20-megawatt analogue facility that, for its time, was a revolutionary leap.
It takes leaders with an expansive heart and generational foresight to embark on such a transformative project, and Okilo’s gambit illuminated households, powered government offices and fueled small businesses for years, planting the seeds of industrialization in the neglected riverine region of the country.
Today, that pioneering spirit is experiencing a magnificent revival under Governor Douye Diri, who recently procured a state-of-the-art 60 megawatt gas turbines and were inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu, drawing a direct line to history.
Governor Diri drew a direct line to Okilo’s legacy: “This gas turbine is not like the one procured by our late leader, Chief Melford Okilo, at Imiringi.”
“These new ones are electronically controlled. So, it is an e-gas turbine,” Diri noted, highlighting the quantum leap in electricity generation technology.
What a landmark governor; Diri is building a legacy project that will outlive his administration.
The facility is currently serving parts of the state capital as the government intensify efforts to rectify the inherited poor distribution (wiring) network within the metropolis. This new plant is poised to deliver 24-hour uninterrupted power, catalyzing an industrial revolution.
It is indeed a gradual process as residents of Yenagoa across different streets testify to steady electricity supply in their areas. It is a new era in Bayelsa State.
For Diri, reliable power is the non-negotiable backbone of economic emancipation. It promises to drastically improve the well-being of the people by stabilizing healthcare and education, while breathing a new lease of life into the economy.
Essentially, it supports the administration’s aggressive enterprise drive, ensuring that over 2,000 small and medium businesses registered with SMEDAN can scale up, create jobs, and thrive without the crippling cost of fueling generators.
As the state celebrates its pearl anniversary, the journey from analogue to digital turbines offers a timeless lesson that true progress is possible.
The legacy of the gas turbines endures, not just as infrastructure, but as a blazing beacon promising a prosperous, industrialized Bayelsa where the welfare of the people remains the ultimate dividend.
