Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, has assured that the State is fully committed to ensuring a seamless takeoff of a Type-A Naval operations base establishment in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, in the shortest possible time.
Governor Alia stated this on Tuesday at Government House Makurdi when he received a team from the Naval Headquarters Abuja.
He appreciated the prompt response of the Chief of Naval Staff, CNS, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, for heeding his call to establish a Nigerian Navy Type-A operational base in Makurdi.
Alia said the on-the-spot visit shows the tenacity of the Chief of Naval Staff in ensuring the unity and stability of the nation.
He recognized the crucial importance of the team’s mission in the assessment and identification of a suitable site for the establishment of the Naval operational base in the state.
The governor further said that once the assessment is concluded, and the feasibility of the base is ascertained, the state government will provide the Naval Headquarters with the survey plan and certificate of occupancy of up to 400 hectares of land allocated to the base and is willing to provide more if need be.
He expressed hope that once the survey plan and certificate of occupancy are received by the Naval Headquarters, the master plan of the base would be given to the state to help provide further support towards the operationalization of the base.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chief of Naval Transformation, Rear Admiral Michael Oamen, disclosed that the team was in the state on the directives of the CNS as a result of the request by the State governor for the assistance of the Nigerian Navy regarding the security architecture of the state.
He acknowledged the strategic nature of Benue State in the food security architecture of Nigeria, hence the importance of establishing the base, and disclosed that their mission was to meet with the state government’s team to come up with modalities for the establishment of the naval base.
