Ex-OSOPADEC Chief Commends FG’s Decision To Revisit Olokola Project

Olusola OkeA former National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olusola Oke, has commended the Federal Government’s decision to revisit the Olokola Free Trade Zone.
The OKFTZ, with a Liquefied Natural Gas project as its major component, was meant to be a world class player in the oil and gas sector of Nigerian economy.
It was conceived in 2005 with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as the major shareholder, with 46.75 per cent stake.
However, behind-the-scene intrigues have ensured that the multi-billion dollar project, which was launched with pomp and pageantry by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007, with a scheduled date for completion in 2012, remains comatose.
The importance of the project was reaffirmed by Oke, a former chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission, OSOPADEC, who noted that the FG’s decision would accelerate the state’s economic growth.
“The decision gladdens the hearts of the people in the state as the development marks the beginning of the end to the economic darkness that was foisted on the state by the present administration in Ondo State since the project was abandoned”, he said.
In a statement by his media aide, Rotimi Ogunleye yesterday, the former PDP governorship candidate in Ondo, now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said: “The Olokola project initiated by late Governor Olusegun Agagu’s administration, was designed to bring economic prosperity, employment opportunity and serve as a huge source of revenue generation to the government of Ondo State”.
He noted that besides its advantages to the state, the project would also serve as a source of additional foreign exchange earner to the Federal Government.
Oke, who is eyeing the APC ticket for the November governorship election in the state, recalled that for nearly eight years, the people of Ondo State were denied the benefits the project would have generated.