Senator Ede Dafinone has vowed to continue efforts to keep a proposed 100 billion-naira industrial gas park in Eku-Sanubi, in Nigeria’s southern Delta state, despite technical challenges delaying the project.
Dafinone, who represents Delta Central in the Senate, said he would oppose relocating the project from Urhobo land until all efforts to resolve the problems at the site had been exhausted.
“I have no intention of moving an Urhobo project to another part of the country,” Dafinone said in an interview with Kpoko FM.
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) brought the project to Sanubi-Orogun as part of efforts to promote industrial development in the region.
Dafinone said the government had already acquired and cleared the land, adding that he was lobbying for the project to proceed.
“The government has already acquired and cleared the land, so I am continuing to lobby for the project to move forward,” he said.
The senator said he had raised concerns about the project’s slow progress with the NCDMB while serving as vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content.
He said other projects approved around the same period had advanced considerably, while the Sanubi project remained largely at the land-clearing stage.
The gas park, he added, should generate jobs, support businesses and stimulate economic activity across Delta Central.
“The objective is not simply to have a project for the sake of having one. We want an industrial project that will create employment, stimulate businesses and contribute to the development of the region,” he said.
Dafinone acknowledged that the project could eventually be considered for another location in Delta Central if the technical requirements at Sanubi-Orogun could not be met.
He named Sapele, Okwagbe and Oghara as possible alternatives, but stressed that relocation was a contingency rather than his preferred option.
For now, he said, his priority was to overcome the technical and logistical difficulties at Sanubi-Orogun and retain the investment at the site already acquired and cleared by the government.
