By Obiabin Onukwugha
The federal government has restated its commitment to complete all ongoing critical Infrastructures in Ogoni ahead of the planned resumption of oil exploration in the area.
The move is part of confidence-building in the ongoing dialogue between the federal government and the people of Ogoni.
The Director of Energy Security in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, restated the commitment during an on-the-spot inspection of some of the projects located in various communities of Ogoni on Tuesday.
Flag-Amachree told journalists that critical facilities were agreed upon by the federal government and the communities to help in building confidence before the resumption of oil exploration.
“We have gone round all the facilities. You are aware that the federal government and the people of Ogoni have been discussing. We have an ongoing dialogue in terms of resumption of oil exploration here in Ogoniland.
“Critical facilities were agreed upon by the federal government and the community to help in building confidence in this federal government’s genuine initiative to resume oil exploration.
“So, we are here to carry out on-the-spot assessment to look at what can be done quickly. We started with the East-West road where we saw a lot of improvement and it is encouraging. We also visited the General Hospital in Eleme, we also visited the specialist hospital, the industrial park site,” he said.
He mentioned that the federal government was serious about meeting its own obligation in the past.
“The Rivers State government has assured us that in the next couple of days we will receive the certificate of occupancy to enable us commence work on the site immediately. So, we are here in Gokana as our final stop to look at what we have here and what we can do.
“So, on behalf of the federal government, we want state our sincere seriousness in terms of meeting our own part of the agreement in the ongoing dialogue with the community. We are also using the opportunity to thank the community for their readiness and all they have been doing to ensure that we have a smooth operation here in Ogoniland,” he stated.
Chairman of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee, Professor Don Baridam, expressed happiness that the federal government is gradually fulfilling its part of the agreement reached with the people of Ogoni in February of this year.
“We met with the government sometime in February this year, we presented some confidence building measures; things that government will do before we start talking with them.
“One of them was the completion of the East-West road. The second one was that the bill for the university to be signed into law. The third one was the rehabilitation of some of our hospitals and the employment of some of our youths in NNPCL. I am happy to say that the road construction is almost completed,” he stated.
