Lagos — FORMER chief whip of the Senate, Senator Rowland Owie, says it will be completely out of place for the Federal Government to build the proposed Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Kaduna now that the nation is experiencing a serious crisis in the Niger Delta.

He, therefore, wants President Umaru Yar'Adua not to give his blessing to the project, which, according to him, is being proposed by members of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said: "Nobody is against the development of other parts of the country but what the planned building of PTI in Kaduna at this crucial time considering what is happening in the Niger Delta shows that there is a strong fifth columnist in Yar'Adua government that wants the government to commit suicide.

There is a Bini parable which says a man should first pay the woman's dowry before doing Christmas for in-laws.

How can the Federal Government start doing charity in Kaduna with the so-called PTI when she has not paid due tax to the people of Niger Delta?

For ten years running, the PDP controlled Federal Government could not repair East-West Road or construct Koko-Ogheye Road, Agbor-Sakpoba-Ogharefe Road, Kolo-Nembe Road.

"These three roads were started by Alhaji Shehu Shagari's administration in 1979. How can a government that gave a whole Niger Delta Ministry N47 billion be bold enough to start talking about PTI in Kaduna, when the PTI in Warri is decaying?

When the three technical colleges promised by Obasanjo to be built in Niger Delta never took off drawing board?"