Buganda’s Premier Charles Peter Mayiga has scoffed at environmental activists campaigning against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, that their campaigns are not based on facts on the ground.
The Katikiro, who spent three days this week touring oil and gas infrastructural developments like the Kabalega Airport, CNOOC’s KingFisher projects, and TotalEnergies Tilenga Project based in Buliisa and Nwoya districts, said in a media interview that while it is important that environmental safeguards are adhered to when constructing projects like EACOP, he was of the view that the project will not disturb sensitive ecosystems in the Murchison Falls National Park and the Murchison Falls-Albert Delta Ramsar site as claimed by environmentalists.
“I don’t think any of our animal populations are going to be affected by the parks that are being set up to extract or explore oil, so those reports about the environment are not necessarily correct,” said Mayiga.
“And I don’t think that the East African Crude Oil is going to destroy the environment because a big portion of the pipelines goes through the kingdom of Buganda, which I’m familiar with, and there are no animal populations that are going to be destroyed by the pipeline” the premier added.