The Federal Government must activate the utilization of Warri and Koko Ports, in order to reduce the restiveness in the area but also create jobs for the youths, Olu of Warri, Ogiame Ikenwole told President Buhari at their meeting in Abuja on Friday.
Ikenwole also called for the actualization of the planned gas industrial park (gas city) that is valued at $20 billion, through a Public-Private Partnership model.
Ikenwole who led a delegation including the immediate past governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, decried the fact that Warri and Koko ports have been utilized while others in the country are active and contributing to the economic activities in their states.
Tagged the Gas Revolution Industrial Park, GRIP, Ogidigben, and envisaged to be a regional hub for all gas-based industries, the project will cover 2,700 hectares of land with fertilizer, methanol, petrochemicals and aluminum plants located in the park that has already been designated as a Tax Free Zone by the Federal Government.
Proposed to gulp some $16 billion, the groundbreaking ceremony of the project was done by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan.
The gas city initiative, involves the Federal government, petroleum ministry and the state government. The site located at the swampy community of Igidigbien was reclaimed through excavation and sandfilling before the groundbreaking event.
The monarch said their concerns include rising insecurity, challenges in the Niger Delta area, ecological problems, infrastructure development, as well as lack of access to ports in the state, which they also presented to the President.
Speaking to State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, the monarch said, “We presented some issues that affects our area most especially our ports. Our ports are not working, Warri Port and Koko Port are very good and solid ports that are not working. While other ports in other areas are working, ours are just left unutilised.
“So we want the ports to be activated so that there can start working, and that will mop up a lot of youths from the streets. When the ports were working there were no restiveness in the area.
“Apart from that there is also the gas city, it is a fantastic project. The last president did the ground breaking before he left but since then nothing has been happening. We want the federal government to hasten action on it because that will mop up over 300,000 unemployed youths from the streets. So when all of our youths are engaged the restiveness will be minimized.”
The monarch also called for some roads in the area to be fixed, saying it will expand economic activities of the area.
“We have the Koko road that needs to be fixed. That road will open up the area, allow economic activities to expand. We have the escravos road that also needs to be fixed. We also want the railway that is going on now, we want it to come to the area by that the economic activities will thrive better and Nigerians will be happy for it.”
Asked that the President’s response was, the monarch said, “He assured us that they will do their best. His hands are tied because everybody demands his attention but that he will follow through our requests to ensure that the things are done.”
Uduaghan who also spoke expressed satisfaction with President Buhari’s response to the request presented to him.
He said, “I’m here on the delegation of the Olu of Warri who is here to visit Mr. President.
“We are really encouraged with his response especially in the area we had a lot of challenges. Mr. President listened to the Olu of Warri.
“We presented the challenges of security, you know we are in an area in the Niger Delta where there has been a lot of insecurity challenges. We also have challenges of ecological problems, we also have the problem of infrastructure development, problem of access to ports which is very critical.
“Delta has six ports and to be able to get to the ports there is a place called escravos bar which has been very shallow. Even the water channel is highly stilted and so the Olu of Warri was appealing to the federal government to dredge the escravos channels so that the bigger ships will be able to come into the ports of delta especially the Warri Ports.”
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja
