The much talked about Kwale Industrial Park in Ndokwa west local government area of Delta State has been given approval by the State Executive Council (SEC), for full establishment and operationalization of the park.
Addressing Journalists on Friday 22nd January 2021, during a Post Exco briefing on the outcome of the SEC meeting, the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, disclosed that the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), established to oversee the park, would be the eyes of government in the park.
“The government is going to hold not less than 25% of the equity of that industrial park and out of that 25%, government will consider what is necessary to take care of Host Communities. We are not holding it in trust for the Host Communities because we are paying compensation for the lands that we are acquiring.
“But because we believe that Host Communities need to be carried along, out of that 25%, government will work out what is good for the Host Communities for the purpose of encouraging good neighbourliness”.
He revealed that the remaining 75% is designed to be in the hands of the private sector operators, stressing that the park would be largely driven by private sector, hinting further that the 25% would account for a number of facilities that would be placed in the park that would involve the state
government.
“We also approved the need to sign a proper Memorandum of Understanding between the Kwale Industrial Park and these different private sectors so that we are able to work out modalities in the place for operation. From the reports we have today, I can tell you that a number of private sector operators have expressed interest”.
Also considered is the Judicial Panel of Inquiry into the Okpe/Urhobo Forest Reserve which has raised issues among the communities that contributed to the forest reserve, “so the government set up a Judicial Panel of Inquiry, not an administrative panel. And the Judicial Panel of Inquiry, has submitted its report with the recommendations and today we have approved the white paper and necessary actions will be taken as to addressing the issues that have hitherto triggered the disagreement and the crisis”.
Meanwhile, a retired civil servant from the Ministry of Environment simply identified as Austin, would face a Judicial Panel to be setup by the Head of Service (HoS), Mr. Reginald Bayoko, over alleged allocation of lands to himself.
According to Aniagwu, “In the course of our approval, it was also discovered based on the report of the Judicial Panel that there was one staff in the Ministry of Environment who hit himself by cutting out some of the lands in that reserve to help himself and though he has retired and in which case we cannot be talking about sacking somebody who has retired but the Exco has directed that the Head of Service will set up a panel in which case even if he has retired he must comes back for them to look into those his actions because we don’t believe that he should go scot free.
“For some of us, we believed that certain actions need to be taken but that will be after the panel to be set up by the Head of Service must have looked into it and they have only one month to report back to Exco as to what is appropriate to be done to this particular individual who rose to the rank of a Director in the Ministry of Environment”, Aniagwu disclosed.
