Emma Amaize
11 February 2005
Warri — IJAW leader, Chief Edwin Clark says the people of the Niger Delta would resist the Federal Government's plan to build one of the world's largest LNG Plant in Ondo State, saying it was another way of giving the Southwest zone more investment in the oil and gas industry and fraudulently making Ondo and Ogun to become oil and gas producing states which they are not.
He said in a statement, yesterday, that it was not surprising that the plant is to be located at Olokola in the Free Zone coastlines of Ogun and Ondo states , pointing out that "it is indeed an abuse of power and the Federal Government's decision is based purely on ethnic consideration."
According to him, "It will not be surprising therefore that Ogun State will be given the status of an oil-producing state in Nigeria and may soon become a member of the Niger Delta region as Ondo, Abia and Imo states were smuggled in simply because they produce between one per cent and five per cent of oil as against the natural geographical definition of the Niger Delta."
He said that in actuality, Ondo State produces little or no gas compared with the production of Delta State, which is the highest in the country and wondered why the biggest gas plant as being contemplated would be built in Ondo rather Delta which has just small LNG plants in Escravos and Brass.
Chief Clark warned that any attempt therefore to utilize the gas resources in the Niger Delta and pump gas form the offshore to feed the LNG plant in Ondo State would be resisted. by the people.
He commended the Delta State House of Assembly for passing a resolution criticising the plan, adding that "a situation whereby Niger Delta people are denied of infrastructural development, education, water, electricity and are made to have the greatest number of unemployed youths in the country is unacceptable."
The Ijaw leader said it was an unwarranted waste of public funds mainly derived from the real Niger Delta states for Obasanjo whose contentious boundary adjustment between Delta and Ondo states was designed to compel some Ijaw oil communities to become part of Ondo State to be using his office to promote disharmony in the oil sector.
If not ethnic politics, Chief Clark asked, why is Lagos State which is surrounded by sea and other facilities not found suitable for the proposed Plant rather than Ondo and Ogun states?
He also criticised the contention of the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Funso Kupolokun that the LNG Plant in Ondo State would generate 40,000 job opportunities, remarking that "this goes further to show clearly that Mr. Kupolokun and the Federal Government are not worried about the youth restiveness in the South-South geopolitical zone or the real Niger-Delta."
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