Deputy Governor of Delta State, Barr (Deacon) Kingsley Burutu Otuaro, Friday, assured the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and other investors in the state of an investor-friendly environment and charged them to embrace the peace initiatives of the Delta State government for mutual benefits as they go on with their various responsibilities.
Speaking in Warri, at the 2017 Swamp West Hub Integrated Stakeholders Engagement Forum for Ogunnu, Iduwini Delta and Ojobo cluster communities’ leadership and SPDC, Otuaro emphasized that peace was key to the actualisation of the SMART agenda put in place by Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State.
Otuaro, who chairs the Delta State Advocacy Committee Against Oil Facility Vandalism, said that Governor Okowa had set up additional bodies such as the Delta State Peace Building and Advisory Council, Delta State Waterways and Land Security among others to pursue and sustain peace for social harmony and development. For SPDC’s, Otuaro said that they had no cause for alarm about full swing operations in the state.
“In line with the SMART agenda of the Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa-led Delta State Government, peace building in order to enhance social harmony is very key to us. Thus, we have institutional structures put in place in pursuance of peace and security to achieve our electioneering promises to Deltans”, Otuaro assured.
While appealing to communities and all Deltans to sustain the commendable relative peace and security in the state, Otuaro also tasked the oil and gas companies to buy deeply into the peace initiatives of the Delta State government for mutual benefits.
Earlier, the Assets Manager, SPDC-West, Mr. Mesh Maichibi, commended leaders of the communities and the state government for the platform for dialogue, enthusing: “The deliberations and decisions will enable the company to plan full operations in the state”.
Maichibi also pledged that SPDC will remain committed to working with government, communities and civil society to implement programmes that will have lasting impact on lives of the people of the Niger Delta and Nigeria.
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