Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Governor of Gombe State, Mohammed Yahaya, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to begin oil and gas exploration in the Gongola basin.
This is even as he disclosed that 3,200 families have been displaced by flood in the state. Yahaya, told State House Correspondents after meeting with President Buhari, that the exploration would trigger economic activities and create jobs for the states in the region.
He said: “With the discovery of oil and gas in Gombe and Bauchi states, and specifically, in the whole of Gongola Basin, we seek to get the support of the federal government, so the pressure will be mounted on the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation, NNPC and the DPR for them to see to the fact that the exploration of oil and gas deposit that is available in Gombe and in fact the wider Gongola Basin is encouraged so that economic activities will be triggered, our people will have jobs and Gombe will join the league of oil producing states.”
Yahaya, who said he was in the Presidential Villa to show his solidarity over the way Buhari has handled the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as bring to his notice, the pressure placed on the state by Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) arriving from states ravaged by insurgency.
Yahaya while speaking on the impact of the recent floods in the state, said two local government areas in the state had been affected by flood, displacing people and creating gullies. He said he sought the intervention of the president to enable the state to tackle the impact.
On the number of people displaced by flood, the governor said that over 3,200 families have been displaced, saying that government was trying to provide them with alternatives.
