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By Ozioruva Aliu, BENIN CITY

THE controversy surrounding the planned citing of an airport in the Uzairue Kingdom in Etsako West local government area of Edo state which is being opposed by the people of neighbouring Okpella in Etsako East local government area continued yesterday as a group: Bullets of the Harmless Rabbit (BHR) has described the position of Okpella people as an attempt to politicise the project.

    A statement by the founder of the group, Lukeman Akemokue who is from Okpella said the proposed airport is a project that would benefit the public while the airstrip being planned by investors in Okpella was a private initiative.

   He said there is no truth that the planned airstrip has been hijacked by the state government neither has the government through the deputy governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu “clandestinely” moved an airport meant for Okpella to Uzairue as being insinuated.

  He said  “First, what Dangote and BUA Cement companies are proposing in Okpella are airstrips for their private use, not an airport for public use.

    “Government cannot dictate to Dangote or BUA where to locate their private airstrips meant for their private use only. The insinuation that a private project is being hijacked and relocated from Okpella to Uzairue by the deputy governor is, therefore, mischievous and misplaced.

   On the issue that Okpella was mentioned by the Federal Ministry of Aviation as a community in Uzairue kingdom, he said  “As for the use of names of two different communities-Okpella and Uzairue- as the location of the project, there is nothing clandestine about it.

   “Preliminary Google map snap observations suggested two suitable lands between Uzairue and Okpella Communities, one by the left, and the other by the right, when going to Okpella from Uzairue.

   “The deputy governor, in his usual show of fairness and wisdom, therefore instructed as follows: (a) if the project is situated wholly in Okpella Land, name it Okpella Airport; (b) if it is wholly Uzairue, name it Uzairue Airport; (c) but if it is situated in the lands belonging to the two communities, call it Okpella-Uzairue Airport. It was on the basis of this logical reasoning this dual-name was adopted by the Inspectors, pending when the actual geographical coordinates will reveal the exact community(ies) the project is located.”

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