The Senator representing Delta North senatorial district at the National Assembly (NASS), Senator Ned Nwoko has met with His Royal Majesty, Obi Ezedimba Nkebakwu III, Obi of Ugboba, a Community in Aniocha North local government area of the State, regarding alleged water coloration occasioned by the activities of MOSRA Energy Limited, a Coal mining company in the area.
The meeting on Wednesday April 10th 2024, was to ensure that MOSRA Energy Limited was doing its job in line with international best practices and meeting its Corporate Social Responsibility to the community.
Senator Nwoko, who disclosed that he is the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee On Environment, said he was in the Palace to have first hand information on the operational modus operandi of the company.
According to him, the federal government would carry out its own investigation into what led to allegations of water pollution or coloration, not to vilify anyone but to ensure that things were done rightly.
He said it was important for experts from the federal government to carry out their own independent investigation to ascertain the truth on what actually led to the coloration of the water.
Hear him: “The mining company has shown to me that they have license to mine and had done Environmental Impact Assessment before commencement of mining.
“I am happy that they underwent through various processes on conditions of mining and the Federal Government had given them license to do business.
“However, my concern is that they meet all their obligations to the community and even go further. I am here just to have a knowledge of the coal mining environment.
“I am aware that the State Government had done their own assessment with regards to pollution or any form of damage on the environment.
“The Federal Government will also send experts with a view to correcting any defect; this is to enable us work in cohesion in the interest of development that positively impacts on all.
“Let me just get to the coal mining site for my own sight-seeing Your Majesty”, Senator Nwoko requested.
Responding, the traditional ruler of Ugboba Community, His Royal Majesty, Obi Ezedimba Nkebakwu III, applauded the senator for the interest he has demonstrated in the matter.
He assured Senator Nwoko, that the company was doing all within its powers to meet up its obligations to the community, saying there is still more to be done based on the Community Development Agreement (CDA) and they are as well paying tax to government.
According to the monarch, as a lessor, he has the obligation to take the Senator to the coal site without undermining the rights of the lessee who was not on ground at the moment.
He however, assured the Senator that the community had enjoyed peaceful coexistence and harmony since MOSRA Energy Limited commenced mining activities in the community.
The monarch in company of the President General of the community, Palace Chiefs and other stakeholders conducted the senator round the mining site and company premises for avoidance of doubt.
Meanwhile, Senator Nwoko, had appreciated the people for giving him the mandate during the 2023 general elections to represent them at the National Assembly in Abuja.
He disclosed that the issue of epileptic power supply to the whole of Delta North senatorial district would soon be a thing of the past.
He said the Senate had agreed with him to stepdown 100 Megawatt of the 980 Megawatt produced by the Independent Power Plant in Okpai, Ndokwa west local government area of the State to the national grid to his people of Delta North.
He said in a matter of one or two years, there would be adequate power supply to Ndokwa, Ika and Aniocha/Oshimili areas that comprised Delta North senatorial district.
He noted that once it was done, business and other economic activities would boom in the senatorial district.
Also, the senator told his people that the issue of water supply would also come to an end as talks are at the peak for the federal government to handover the Ogwashi-Uku Dam to the Delta State government.
He said he started the move when he was member of the House of Representatives, stressing that now that the construction was completed, in few months, there would be availability of water to the communities.
Nwoko who excited the people, hinted that Constituency projects which are directly under his purview, would be his priority.
He said he is in discussions with the traditional ruler on at least one or two Constituency projects that are of importance to the people rather than site projects that are of no value to them.
Senator Nwoko disclosed that the National Boundary Commission would be in the State to adjust the boundary between Delta State and Edo State to permanently resolve issues of land encroachment.
He took the opportunity to educate the youths of his Stars University of Nigeria (SUN), the first of its kind in West Africa in his country home of Idumuje-Ugboko, where qualified candidates have the opportunity to have two certificates, one in sports and another in academics.
It could be recalled that in May 25, 2023, Mosra Energy Limited inaugurated new mining equipment for Mosra Energy Idowu Falola Coal Mines and also commissioned a groundbreaking of 600MW mine-mouth coal power plants by Ramos Electric in Ugboba community.
However, on 2nd February 2023, after coal deposits were discovered in four communities in Aniocha North local government area of Delta State, namely Ugboba, Obompka, Ukwu-Nzu and Ugbodu, it was later licensed for mining and MOSRA Energy Limited got the bid, hence, the commencement of mining exploration.
Among these communities that the mining was to start from, only Ugboba was able to galvanize its people together in terms of providing enabling environment in order for the activities to take off.
But on 13th February 2024, indigenes and residents of Ukwu-Nzu, one of the communities in Aniocha North local government area of the State where coal was found raised the alarm that they were living in perpetual fear of the possibility of cholera outbreak and other gastrointestinal diseases over the activities of the coal mining in the area.
On 4th April 2024, a renowned journalist and immediate past Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Delta State Council, Comrade Patrick Ochei, said that he had been vindicated by the expert report of Delta State Government which exonerated MOSRA Energy Limited, from complexity in the water colouration of Ojeokpa stream within Ukwu-Nzu community.
He raised this concern amidst the tension that was building up when a group of people from Ukwu-Nzu began to flood online space with allegations of water pollution by a coal mining company in Ugboba, a neighbouring community to Ukwu-Nzu and Obomkpa.
