Concessionaires blame low activities at Rivers ports on vessels attack

Harbourandport.com: Lagos ---- Concessionaires in Port Harcourt lamented recurrent attacks on their vessels around Bonny fair waters, noting that their operations are being affected by activities of pirates on the Niger Delta waterways.

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi

This is even as the Federal Government has expressed worries over the level of insecurity on the Niger Deltan waterways.

Two concessioners at the Port Harcourt Port, Ports and Terminal Operators Nigerian Limited and BUA Ports and Terminal Limited lamented that vessels that call at their facilities are being attack regularly.

The General Manager of BUA, Mohammed Ibrahim, was quoted to have said that two of its vessels were attacked recently, adding that the incident had affected their operation optimally.

Ibrahim stated that the operators now charter gunboats to escort their vessels on the fair waters to avoided piracy attack, stating that security was adding a huge cost to their operations.

However, the federal government through Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC, has promised that it would do everything to ensure smooth operations at the port, especially in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

ICRC said this in Port Harcourt when it visited the ports in the state to assess and ascertain the level of compliance by the concessionaires on their signed agreements.

Acting Director-General of ICRC, Engr. Chidi Izunwa, said “As an agency of the federal government which takes custody of all concessionary agreement between the government the private sector and ensure efficient execution, we are here on a monitoring visit to see if those agreements are met.

“Security is very important. If vessels are coming here and vessel and people are attacked they would not want to come again. This is a challenge that is affecting the ports in this region and not the issue of high charges. Security is a very expensive thing.

“It is important that we tell our people that without security our businesses cannot prosper. When we went to the South-West on this same visit, I allowed my staff to leave and move freely, but we are here today I have insisted that they stay in one particular place so I can provide security for them.”

He promised that all the challenges identified would be transmitted to appropriate authorities, adding that high charges are a direct result of the cost of doing business in the area because of the security situation.