Senate Moves to Save Ondo Seashore Community from Extinction

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Senate has mandated its committee on the Niger Delta Affairs to look into the urgent need to save Aiyetoro, a seashore community in Ondo State, currently under heavy sea incursion from going into extinction.

The red chamber also asked the panel, when constituted, to probe the N6.4 billion contract awarded to Gallet Nigeria Limited aimed at constructing a shoreline protective wall designed with a geo-tube technology in Ayetoro.

The decision was taken by the upper legislative chamber following a motion by the Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District, Jimoh Ibrahim, yesterday.

Ibrahim lamented that the construction firm allegedly abandoned the project despite collecting 25 per cent mobilisation.

He noted that the oil producing Ayetoro remained a phenomenal historical and cultural settlement along the coastal stretch of Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State and  also a major source of revenue for the nation

He said:”Aiyetoro community used to be one of the most prosperous riverine settlements in Nigeria due to its thriving trade in fish.

“The community and its environs account for 5.4 per cent of the 60,000 barrel per day of Ondo State’s crude oil production output amounting to about 3.7 per cent of Nigeria’s total oil production and this ranks Ondo State as the 5th, among Nigeria’s oil producing States, under the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act.

“The devastating sea incursions and ocean surges have been the albatross of the Ayetoro community for over two decades with hundreds of homes and properties being destroyed annually, resulting in the displacement of indigenes of the community and consequently, in the disruption of oil exploration in the area.

“The surges have become an annual occurrence that successive governments have failed to attend to and serving as daily reminder to the indigenes of Ayetoro that the community is gradually slipping into the belly of the Atlantic Ocean.

“A concerned interventionist agency, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as early as 2004, just four years after its creation, made a commendable attempt to stem the slide.

“The contract was revoked in 2009 for alleged lack of capacity and re-awarded to Dredging Atlantic Limited at an undisclosed cost.

“However 11 years after the new contractor took over, and sixteen years after the contract was first awarded, there is nothing on ground to show any intervention by the government, thereby creating the wrong impression of an unconcerned Federal Government.

“Aiyetoro is on the verge of being completely lost to the sea if nothing is done urgently, and this is more poignant because residents are gradually losing hope that their abodes of many years have not receive desired attention from relevant authorities; and “The utopian community, where communism once fully held sway may soon be an illusion of history following the incessant sea incursion ravaging the community.”

Briefing journalists after the resolution at plenary, Ibrahim explained that he had already initiated moves to ensure speedy relocation of the victims to a temporary location pending when a permanent solution would be found to save Aiyetoro.

He  said: “There is a plan to build a brand new town in the hinterland to resettle those that had been rendered homeless by the ravaging ocean incursion.

“I have written to the Ondo State Government through the House of Assembly and very soon action would start on the development of the new Aiyetoro town.

“We are also working on the multinational organisations that are operating in the area to also come up with their corporate social responsibility in order to save their host community from sliding into extinction.”