Group Demands Inclusion of South-east, South-south in Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Project

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

A socio-cultural and professional group has made a case for the inclusion of the Southeast and South-south regions in the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Project.

The group, Odinala Cultural Heritage Foundation otherwise known as (OCHIE Igbo) which comprises of young Igbo professionals from across the world, hinged its demand on the abundant natural gas in the two regions which is critical to the AKK project.

In the letter addressed to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Gas, Senator Agom Jarigbe, the group expressed disappoinment that the Southeast was deliberately schemed out of any direct participation or derivable benefits from the National Gas Masterplan (NGMP).

“Having noticed the conspiratorial neglect of the Southeast in the multi-million-dollar AKK Gas Pipeline Project, NGEP and the National Gas Masterplan, which runs from Kogi State through Kaduna, Kano and Niger Republic, OCHIE Igbo is leading a coalition of Civil Society & Human Rights Organisations, Security and Safety groups under the auspices of Coalition for the Defense & Economic Development of the Southeast (CODEDOSE), to champion a review of the AKK, NGEP and NGMP for the inclusion of Southeast and South-south Region.

The letter signed by the group’s National President, Dr. Chukwuma Ogugua Orji and Chairman, Board of Trustees, Okoro Chinedum Benedict, while claiming that the National Gas Survey Plan (NGSP) situates substantial gas deposits in the Niger Delta, Enugu, Imo and Abia States, pointed out that there is no known and exploitable natural gas along the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano axis of the natural gas pipeline which President Buhari commissioned on June 30, 2020.

“As such, the force of our argument rests on the fact that given the volume of gas deposit in the South-east and South-south, it is implausible that these two Regions were excluded from such an expansive developmental project.

“We are therefore employing dialogue and quiet diplomacy to achieve the following objectives: (a). That the policy introducing the NGEP be reviewed and further expanded to

accommodate the South-east and South-south Regions. (b). That a Gas Power Plant of about 1,000,000 cubic liters’ capacity be headquartered at Imo State, as the backbone of an Industrial Park in the region. This could power emergent industries with steady energy and serve as economic indemnity for the Southeast people. (c). That the quantum of Gas deposit in the Southeast is sufficient enough to serve as an insurance to the Nigerian Senate and Federal Government to pass and assent to the Bill seeking the establishment of the South-east Development Commission (SEDC) and a Ministry for Southeast Affairs. (d). To persuade the authorities to ensure that the Gas headquarters is sited in our region, which has the capacity to exploit about 1,000,000 cubic liters of LPG, LNG and CNG and other ancillary business that will yield greater income to the federal government, which is the primary reason for the NGEP”, they said.

Meanwhile, the group has solicited the partnership of the National Assembly in the advocacy for the inclusion of South-east and South-south geopolitical zone in the National Gas Plan.

Those copied in the letter include; Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Speaker HoR, Tajudeen Abbas, Deputy Speaker HoR, Benjamin Kalu, Min. of State for Petroleum), Heineken Lokpobiri, Min. of State for Petroleum, Ekperikpe Ekpo,HoR Committee Chair on Petroleum, Imo Ugochinyere and HoR Committee Chair on Gas Resources, Nicholas Mutu.