The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), has flagged off the installation of 229 street lights in Bane community in Khana local government area of Rivers State.
Bane is the home-town of the late Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, a foremost campaigner for environmental justice, who was hanged by the military junta in November 1995.
The street light project will also cover the Saro-Wiwa Memorial Park, which is located in the community.
At the ceremony, chairman of the NDDC board, Barrister Chiedu Ebie, said the installation of the street lights as well as the construction of a five-kilometre road leading to the community was part of the commission’s contribution to immortalise the late environmentalist.
Ebie, who was represented by the Rivers State representative in the board, Chief Tony Okocha, said Saro-Wiwa led the struggle for the people of Niger Delta region to get what is due them.
He thanked the NDDC managing director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, for promptly approving the two projects for the community, pointing out that the agency’s intervention was not based on any request from the community but for the fact that it is “consistent with our national anthem that the labours of our heroes past should not be in vain.”
“Ken Saro-Wiwa led the way in laision with other leaders, though translated; the like of Dr Obi Wali of blessed memory. He led the road to what we are getting today; what we are seeing today in the Niger Delta.
“That our people are being remembered in spite of the fact that we are the geese that laid the golden egg, we have had deprivations. Those deprivations have led to moral depravities.”
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