The
low channel leading to both Calabar and Warri ports have resulted to the
grounding of activities at both ports, even as stakeholders have called on the
Federal Government to expedite action of the dredging of both channels.
 |
| Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman |
While
the contract for the dredging of Calabar port channel has been awarded over a
year, the Warri port channel has not yet been awarded.
Stakeholders
at both ports said that the economic recession has made the situation at the
ports worse and express fear that port facilities would begin to deteriorate.
Chairman
of the Calabar Shippers’ Association, Michael Ogodo, told Vanguard that the
situation at the port is becoming worrisome as nothing is happening now there
now. Ogodo noted that unless the channel is urgently dredged the situation may
get even worse.
According
to him, “Those of us who are stakeholders here we are suffering and we feel
that the federal government meant well to have awarded the contract in the
first place. As I speak to you now, there is nothing on ground to show that the
contractors have moved to site but all we hear is that they have been paid so
much.
“Stakeholders
here had a meeting with the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA,
Hadiza Bala
Usman, and we told her that we do not want them to cancel the contract
for the dredging of the Calabar port channel.
“That
is not what we are looking for, what we are looking for is that government
through the NPA should expedite action on the contract and at the same time
review the contract, was it over priced as some people were saying, they should
go ahead and review it but under no circumstance should that affect the
execution of the contract.
On
what is happening to the Calabar channel dredging, Ogodo said that “I think
should go to the NPA who signed the contractor on behalf of the federal
government and the Calabar Channel Management”.
Former
National Financial Secretary of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents,
ANLCA, Prince Johnbull Oribhabor, also told Vanguard the port activities at the
port have been grounded and that stakeholders do not have jobs to do any
longer.
Similarly, President, Delta Shippers Association (DESA), Austin
Egbegbadia, appealed to the Federal Government to dredge the Escravos water
channel which connects the Atlantic to Warri Port, to enable bigger sail to the
port.
Egbegbadia expressed optimism that if the situation was
addressed, activities at the port would come back to life and boost economic
development of Warri, the Delta commercial city.
The association said that the revival of Warri port would
also help to reduce the cost of shipment of cargoes to other ports of the
country.
“At this crucial time of in the country’s economy when we
are seeking diversification, government needs to formulate policy framework to
make the moribund Delta port viable again.
“The Warri port and other ports in Delta port can create
over 100,000 direct jobs and 500,000 indirect jobs,” he said.
Efforts to reach the Chairman of Messrs
Niger Global Engineering and Technical Company Limited (NGET), the company in
partnership with NPA for the establishment of CCM, to whom the contract was
awarded, Senator Hope Uzodinma, proved abortive as he neither picked his calls
nor reply to Vanguard’s text message.
Managing Director of Calabar Channel
Management Company, Mr. Bert Van Eenoo, was quoted in the media to have said
that the project has not been abandoned and that his company received the sum
of $7,500, 000 from the NPA on 8th June, 2015, two years after the commencement
of the contractual agreement while it was agreed that the balance of the
reimbursement is to be paid later.
He noted that under the agreement, the NPA
and Niger Global Company resolved to establish a limited liability company
known as Calabar Channel Management to perform the statutory duties of the of
NPA in the capital and maintenance dredging, quarterly bathymetric survey, buoy
maintenance and surveillance, wreck removal, visual pollution, monitoring and
reporting, planning and management of the maintenance dredging operations in
Calabar Channel, training of the staff of NPA and any other activity which will
enable the parties to achieve the objects or business of the company.
From Vanguard Newspaper
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