Senator Ede Dafinone has vowed to continue fighting for the retention of the proposed ₦100 billion Industrial Gas Park at its present location in Eku-Sanubi, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State, saying he will not allow the strategic project to be moved away from the area without exhausting efforts to resolve the technical challenges confronting it.
Dafinone, who represents Delta Central Senatorial District, said the project was brought to Urhobo land by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to promote industrial development, stressing that his immediate concern was to ensure that the investment remained at Sanubi-Orogun.
Speaking during an interview with Kpoko FM, the senator said: “I have no intention of moving an Urhobo project to another part of the country.”
According to him, the government has already acquired and cleared the land for the project, making it imperative for relevant authorities to continue looking for ways of overcoming the obstacles delaying its development.
“The government has already acquired and cleared the land, so I am continuing to lobby for the project to move forward,” he said.
Dafinone disclosed that he had previously raised the issue with the NCDMB while serving as Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content, noting that the project had failed to progress at the pace of some other projects approved around the same period.
“Other projects that were approved around the same period are already approaching completion, while ours is still largely at the land-clearing stage,” he said.
The senator said the importance of the project went beyond its physical location, arguing that a major industrial investment of that scale should ultimately create jobs, stimulate businesses and generate wider economic activity for the people of 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,” Dafinone said.
He nevertheless acknowledged that if the technical requirements at Sanubi-Orogun could not ultimately be satisfied, the project might have to be considered for another location within Delta Central. He mentioned Sapele, Okwagbe and Oghara as possible alternatives, but presented such a move as a contingency rather than his preferred option.
For Dafinone, therefore, the immediate battle remains the retention of the ₦100 billion investment at Sanubi-Orogun, with the unresolved question being whether the technical and logistical difficulties at the site can be overcome sufficiently to allow the project to proceed where the government has already acquired and cleared the land.
