The Leaders Caucus of the Akwa Ibom State in south-eastern Nigeria has rejected plans by the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) to site nuclear power plant in Itu Local Government Area of the state.
The Community leaders, led by Senator Anietie Okon, told journalists on Thursday in Uyo, the state capital the rejection was due to disastrous consequences that failure of nuclear plants had brought to even more discerning climes.
He wondered what gave Nigeria, where perennial incompetence in matters of safety and security has become legendary, the impetus to venture into such a risky project, while countries with known competences like Germany, Italy, US, Russia and Japan are shutting down such plants.
Okon said that gambling with such risky issue by Nigeria was a clear and deliberate invitation to disaster of monumental proportions.
Declaring Akwa Ibom as grossly unsuitable for such projects, the leaders noted that the location of nuclear plants all over the world is done far away from human habitation, noting that Akwa Ibom is small and compact, even as there is no distance across the state that is beyond 50km.
“The location of nuclear plants all over the world is done far away from human habitation. For instance, the Japanese project is mostly offshore. It was the surge of the Tsunami that created and blighted major areas of the Japanese coastline, to the extent that people have been evacuated and quarantined.
“Women in those areas have recently been giving birth to monstrous-looking creatures in the name of babies. Given the above scenario, one wonders what qualifies Akwa Ibom State for such project,” he said.
Okon, however, called on the Federal Government to partner the state to facilitate the realisation of the Ibaka Deep seaport project and quick implementation of the conversion of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, to a degree awarding institution.
He regretted that the only visible direct Federal Government industrial projects in the state in the last 40 years are the moribund Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company in Oku Iboku and the Aluminium Smelter plant in Ikot Abasi, whose stories today were ‘inglorious commonplace and told in melancholic tones’.