Bonny chiefs, lawmakers flay proposed NLNG shipyard in Lagos

PLANS by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) to site its proposed shipyard in Lagos State rather than its key operational base in Bonny Island, Rivers State, are a great injustice to the people of the area, the chiefs and lawmakers in Bonny Kingdom have said.

The people described as “a grand conspiracy against the people of Bonny Kingdom and the Niger Delta region the planned relocation,” adding that it violates the Nigerian Content Act, 2000, is disappointing and condemnable.

Also, in a statement yesterday, the Bonny socio-political group, Advocacy 2015, said the NLNG proposed shipyard building in Lagos violates “the psychological contract with the good people of Grand Bonny Kingdom and the entire Niger Delta region.

“We are deeply concerned that a project of this magnitude that will have a direct positive impact on the socio-economic wellbeing of our people will be sited elsewhere.”

On his part, the lawmaker representing Bonny/Degema federal constituency, Randolph Brown, lamented that in spite of the kingdom’s strategic role in the Nigerian project, it has not yet been connected to the national grid.

He noted that the people’s potential for economic sustainability has been increasingly threatened by the continuous exploitation and degradation of the environment with gas flaring and emissions from other industrial sources.

“The people of Bonny Kingdom were relocated from their ancestral homes for the purpose of constructing the NLNG facility and have since continued to live peacefully in spite of the pains of vacating their ancestral land and the sacrifice for the economic wellbeing of Nigeria,” the group noted.

“It is, therefore, worrisome that the plans, as already designed and concluded by the powers that be, are not only unjustifiable and morally wrong but totally unacceptable to the chiefs, youths, women and the entire people of Bonny Kingdom.”

The people warned that the proposed project, if sited as planned, would not only rob the state and its councils of opportunities and tax revenue but also further increase unemployment and hardship for the people.