ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – President Bola Tinubu has assured the South-South Monarch Forum that he would look into the construction of the East-West Road.
The contract for dualisation of the 338-kilometre East-West Road was awarded in four sections to four different contractors under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, but almost two decades after, the road project has yet to be completed.
The Senator Abdul Ningi-led Senate Ad-hoc Committee on fact-finding on East-West, had last year October expressed concerns over the duplication of East-West road contract by the Federal Ministry of Works, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, state and local governments, stating that the development had compromised the road engineering concepts and construction.
Speaking to State House Correspondents after meeting with President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Chairman of Delta State Traditional Rulers, Maj. Gen. Felix Mujakpiruo (retd) along with the paramount ruler of Emuoha Kingdom, Sergeant Awuse, said that the monarchs visited to present a catalogue of requests for the development of the Niger-Delta region.
Mujakpiruo bemoaned the lack of infrastructure in the area and the necessity of providing the Niger Delta’s youths with tools o work.
He added that building the Itakpe-Abuja Railway would facilitate a secure drive from Warri to Abuja.
The Monarch Forum also called for the resuscitation of the abandoned ports in the region, adding that it will facilitate employment for the people and also improve the economy of Nigeria.
“We come to our listening president with a catalogue of our request in the region In the region we produce and we give resources to the country and yet we are suffering amid plenty. So we just have to catalogue our sufferings and what we want the President to do for us so that we can feel that we are part of this country the President said he would listen he would look at our request and he would do the needful.
“We also felt like he should try and link up the Itakpe to Railway to Abuja Railway so that right from Warri, we can safely drive to Abuja. What about the abandoned ports? We feel that if those ports are revived, it will bring employment for our people, and it will improve the economy of this country” he said.
The Chairman Delta State Traditional Rulers stressed that the Niger Delta is the major oil-producing region of the country and should not be left to agonize amidst ample resources
“There are a lot of things that we said he should do for us like the East-West Road that has been abandoned for so many years and most of the roads in the South-South you cannot have access to Abuja, from Port-Harcourt to Aba is not passable, from Benin to Uromi to Okene are not passable.
“We also felt like he should try and link up the Itakpe to Railway to Abuja Railway so that right from Warri we can safely drive to Abuja, what about the abandoned ports we feel that if those ports are revived it will bring employment for our people and it will improve the economy of this country”, he added.
The Minister of Niger Delta, Abubakar Momoh, on his part said the government needs to interrogate further about what is being tagged oil theft, he said that the issue of pipeline vandalisation should be wholistically checked to ensure that Niger Delta youths are not wrongly accused of the crime.
He called for empowerment of youths in the Niger Delta Region, saying entrepreneurship training is crucial to reducing the wave of oil theft in the region.
“I think we may also carry out some kind of wholistic examination on what we call oil theft in Nigeria whether is not even the kind of professional stealing from even the people who are even producing the oil because if there is no vandalisation and yet you are talking of oil theft I think it has got to a point where the government will also look critically into this is called oil theft whether it is oil theft or those people who are in charge are the ones stealing the oil and giving it a different name believing that is the youths of the region because I understand that even at the point of loading to overseas.
“They can reduce the figure, and at the end of the day, you think the oil is stolen. I think that these are areas that the government will have to look at in due course. The door should be opened to people like this because they are the custodian of the peace of Niger Delta, the meeting that has happened today I can regard as a huge success”
The Minister commended President Tinubu for giving an audience to the Monarch Forum, saying consistent engagement of the Forum by the government would strengthen the peace in the region.
“These are the owners of the region, the more you engage them they will talk to the youths and those who are involved but when you keep them away it becomes a problem because they will not have that sense of belonging of continuing to talk to the people and above all is also to look at the infrastructure of the region”, he said.
