Akwa Ibom leaders reject plans to site nuclear plant in Itu

The Akwa Ibom State leaders caucus has rejected plans by the Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) to site nuclear power plant in Itu Local Government Area of the state, attributing such rejection to disastrous consequences that failure of nuclear plants have brought to even more discerning climes.
The leaders, led by Senator Anietie Okon, questioned what gives 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, USA, Russia and Japan are shutting down such plants.
Addressing a press conference in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital on Thursday, the leaders caucus represented by Senator Anietie Okon said 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 50 kilometers.
“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.”
Okon, however, called on the Federal Government to partner the state to facilitate 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 story today, according to him, were inglorious commonplace and told in melancholic tones.