The anger that greeted a campaign awareness by Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) to enlighten the people over the proposed siting of nuclear energy power in Oku Iboku community, Itu local government area of Akwa Ibom State is far from being over as some people in the state are wont to vent their spleen.
The latest among the people opposing the project in the state is Patrick Henry Edet, a pastor and founder of Grace Family, Uyo, who has loudly declared that the “The Nuclear Plant shall not be established in Akwa Ibom State.”
NAEC which is the midwife of the proposed project bandied with “Sustainable and Reliable Energy for Economic Growth” as its theme during an enlightenment campaign held on Thursday, December 19, 2019, in Uyo.
Edet, speaking in Planet 101.1 FM, Uyo on Wednesday, January 1, said “Nuclear Plant shall not be established in Akwa Ibom State. We shall not have it here. I close the door against it.
“We cannot manage the effects of radioactivity. If, since 59 years ago the country gained political independence, we cannot manage electricity supply talkless of enjoying stable power supply, how can we manage nuclear energy? Go to Chernobyl and find out what happened. Go to Ukraine. Find out from Japan, a leading industrial and economic nation, if she has been able to manage the nuclear plant.”
The clergyman kicked “Let the planners of the project forget about Akwa Ibom. Why can’t they site the project in another state? Do we have uranium here for the enrichment of the plant? We have crude oil in Akwa Ibom. Why can’t the Federal Government establish a refinery since we have a large quantity of crude oil instead of contemplating bringing a nuclear plant to kill us.”
“I am divinely protesting against the nuclear plant in this state. I am leading a divine protest against it. Let Angels of God rise up against the project in this state. We do not want it,” Edet rejected.
Edet is not alone. During the awareness campaign, Mr. Etetim Onuk, the Itu local government area Chairman, equally opposed the idea thus, “Without sounding immodest, let me state emphatically that from the conception of this idea to site a nuclear plant in some parts of Itu Local Government Area, the elders, stakeholders, traditional ruler and the political class had risen in unison to oppose it.
Toeing the same line, Prof. Okon Ansa of Itu Concerned Patriot, said in case of accident in the nuclear plant, the country has no ability to manage the emergency crisis that may emanate from the nuclear plant, adding that the establishment of nuclear plant would pose threat to national security because the nuclear plant materials could enter wrong hands.
Earlier, Matthew Agu, the Project Manager, Nigeria Nuclear Power had said that there were numerous benefits of a nuclear power plant in a locality.
Agu who is a professor said that nuclear energy was friendly, safe and cheapest than thermal and solar, stressing that nuclear energy was quite environmentally friendly.
“The Nuclear Power Energy industry plays an important role in the social-economic growth of the country.
“This ranges from job creation, provision of basic amenities to generation of substantial domestic economic value in electricity sales and revenue.
However, Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, has doused tension by asking Oku Iboku people to remain calm over the proposed siting of a nuclear plant in the area.
Enang, a one-time Senator who represented Akwa Ibom North East in the National Assembly, speaking in an interview with journalists in Uyo, asked them not to resort to violence in opposing the siting of the plant in their community, saying the Federal Government would not do anything to the detriment of the people.
He said the result of the environmental impact assessment of the project would determine if the federal government would go-ahead to establish the plant in the area.
“I had engaged in a meeting with the former Director-General of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency in my house on the safety of this project, and I had told him that there are other alternative sources of energy that are safer. We did not complete the discussion until his tenure expired and he left, and another person was appointed.
“Where we are now is where they are doing an environmental impact analysis and the discussion we had with the former Director-General was that they have to do an environmental impact analysis and a lot of people in the whole of that area will have to be evacuated in case of an accident.
“And I drew his attention to Chernobyl and the number of nuclear accidents we were having in the world at that time, and I also drew his attention to the fact that around Chile, nuclear plants accident had sunk almost a whole clan.
“We have to find out what the people really want and the effects of it and if there is no other alternative to doing it.
“People should be calm and just make their submissions. There shouldn’t be any violence about it. The Federal Government will make a decision based on the report of the assessment.”
