By Austin Ogwuda
Asaba — THE much awaited School of Marine Technology located in Burutu, Delta State is expected to take off in two weeks time, when the Governing Council of the school would be formally inaugurated, says Mr. Funkekeme Solomon, representing Burutu II constituency in the  state House of Assembly.
Solomon who disclosed this when a delegation of Bayelsan indigenes in Delta State paid him a courtesy visit in Asaba, denied rumours that the siting of the School of Marine Technology in Burutu was a political gimmick.

He said the temporary site of the school was ready while other structures that would facilitate its early take off were receiving final touches, adding that “the school, the first of its kind in Delta Ijaw land would not only give the area a sense of belonging but also raise the level of education of the youths in the Niger Delta”

It will be recalled that the Delta State House of Assembly had in August 1, 2006 passed  a Bill setting up the school.

Special Assistant to the Governor on Research, Mr. Raymond Okiti had earlier in a press statement said “the school will end decades of disuse of the dockyard facilities at Burutu, easily one of the oldest port towns in the country as the Burutu shipyards were built by the United African Company UAC) in the 1940s”.

It further added that  the school which will run courses on oceanography, tourism, maritime and transport studies, shipping and fishing, will be the first of its kind in the mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta and when fully operational.