Major road project for Delta to take off soon

Work on a US $1-million road project in the Niger Delta region will start in the next few months, a Shell spokesman in Lagos told IRIN on Friday.

"The project will open and interlink the hinterland and generally make the communities more accessible as well as helping businesses," the spokesman said. He added that the project would be funded from Shell's community development programme.

The road will run through Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State; Oloibiri, where crude oil was first exploited in Nigeria in the late 1950s; Nembe and Kolo town.

For years, irate communities in the Delta have been complaining of neglect while oil firms pollute their environment and profit from the exploration. Some youths have kidnapped oil workers to draw attention to their plight.