Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, on Friday presented documents allocating 100 hectares of land to the Nigerian Navy for the establishment of a naval base and dockyard in the state.

Mr Abiodun presented the document to the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Emmanuel Ogalla, when he paid a courtesy visit to the naval headquarters in Abuja.

He said the visit was to deepen collaboration between the Nigerian Navy and the state government, adding that Ogun had attained frontier status and was expecting the commencement of oil exploration.

According to him, Ogun will be declared an oil-producing state hence the need for a naval base and dockyard to protect the facilities.

He said, “Only about three or four months ago, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited came and declared that Ogun State had now qualified for frontier status. They declared as one of the states that they will begin to explore oil in frontier-based status and that is a status that is declared in areas where they believe that there are petroleum resources available from all locations.

“This is justified to them because we obtained a status that is probably about 60 years old from Shell, showing that Shell had drilled some wells around the other side of Tongaji Island about 60 years ago. But as soon as they found oil in Delta, they abandoned those wells and never came back.’’

The governor added that exploration of oil meant that the state had one of the most abundant deposits of bitumen, saying that Ogun would be declared an oil-producing state in no distant time.

He said that a team was sent to the state to take a look at the sites that would be suitable to have a naval base and a naval dockyard.

“Another reason why we thought this was important besides the frontier business status is the Natural Gas Project, the LNG project, which had been on the drawing board for several years. And because we were also fore thinking and seeing what happened in view of the Russian-Ukrainian war, where the whole world is beginning to experience a shortage of the supply of natural gas, we knew that in no distant future, this project will move back on stream.

“We are aware that one of the conditions for such a huge project that would cost tens of billions of dollars would be to have a naval presence because of the size of that presence. Today, I’m happy to confirm that the state has finally allocated 100 hectares of land to the Nigerian Navy to establish a naval base and dockyard,” he added.

Responding, the chief of naval staff said that the plans to establish a naval base and dockyard in Ogun State were to protect critical investments.

Mr Ogalla said that Ogun State being an industrial hub and strategic state required the presence of the Nigerian Navy to secure investments.

He assured that the navy high command would do what was necessary to ensure that the base came alive in the next few days.

He, however, urged the governor to provide the navy with the certificate of occupancy to enable the team to return to site and commence preparations.

According to him, Ogun State is strategic in the nation and it is strategic to the navy’s activities which cannot be effectively done except with the collaboration of key stakeholders like the state.

“We listen to the proposal the governor has towards developing the state and geared towards promoting economic activities. He proposed molecular LNG and molecular blue seaport and also the development of the ‘Tongeji’ Island. These are investments that will attract a number of U.S dollars of up to N10 billion into Nigerian economy.

“These investments can’t be without security. Our duty is to make sure we fulfil this aspect which is the provision of security. We will move without waiting to establish these facilities, we will make steps towards identifying suitable locations for the naval base, ’’he said.

(NAN)