An aspirant for Idah Federal Constituency, Akoji Daniel Abalaka, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to declare Kogi State the 11th oil producing state in Nigeria to douse the tension among neighbouring communities bordering the Ibaji oil well.
Since President Jonathan commissioned the oil exploration facilities belonging to Orient Petroleum Resources (OPR) at Aguleri-Otu in Aguleri, Anambra East council of Anambra State, where he declared Anambra the 10th oil-producing state, there have been claims and agitations from the neighbouring Kogi and Enugu states that the oil deposits being explored by the company are domiciled in their territories, not Anambra.
However, Abalaka, who is seeking the ticket on the platform of the PDP, urged the President to use his position to ensure justice in the dispute, which has lingered for long and has put development at bay in the communities.
He recalled the case of the coalmine in Okaba, where the community suffered untold degradation from the exploration activities, while the glory went to Enugu.
According to him, Odagbo community in Okaba had vast reserves of coal, but it is a poor, quiet community in Kogi State with a history of being sidelined and loss of identity.
“The only new things that happened, as the people could recall, was environmental degradation in an endemic proportion, loss of identity and shattered dreams and promises,” he noted. “They are pained that the mining activities that were supposed to have brought socio-economic transformation their way brought more worries instead.”
Abalaka said that as an aspirant aiming to represent the constituency where Ibaji is situated, he does not want the people to suffer the same fate as Okaba people, just as he noted no doubt about the oil well being located in Kogi. However, he cautioned the people not to take laws into their hands
