Governor seeks commencement of oil exploitation in Gongola Basin

Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, yesterday, visited the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where he urged President Muhammadu Buhari to cause the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to begin oil and gas exploitation in the Gongola Basin.

The governor told newsmen after meeting with the President that the exploitation would come with corresponding fillip to economic activities as well as facilitate the creation of job opportunities for states in the region.

“With the discovery of oil and gas in Gombe and Bauchi States, and specifically, in the whole of Gongola Basin, we seek to get the support or the Federal Government. So, pressure will be mounted on the NNPC and the DPR to see that the exploitation of oil and gas deposit that is available in Gombe and in fact the wider Gongola Basin is encouraged so that economic activities will be triggered. Our people will have jobs and Gombe will join the league of oil producing states.”

He also said he was in the State House to demonstrate his solidarity with the President over the way he has piloted the affairs of the country especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, expressing confidence that the disease would soon become a thing of the past.

He further said the visit afforded him the opportunity to brief the President on the challenges brought to bear on Gombe by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) arriving from states where Boko Haram menace was prevalent.