Posted on June 16, 2020
The Baro Port in Niger state has remained dormant over seven months after it was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari a few weeks to the 2019 general elections because it was an uncompleted project at the time.
An advocacy group rooting for the completion of the project, The Blue Resolution Initiative (TBRI), stated this in a statement issued in Minna, Wednesday.
The statement jointly signed by the chairman of the group, Mohamned D. Abubakar, secretary general, Ibrahim Akib Ja’afaru and the chairman, Board of Trustees, BM Dzukogi, said President Buhari was made to commission a ware house lacking basic facilities to function as a port.
“It is sad to discover that Baro port has been abandoned and laying waste more than seven months after it was commissioned. The President only rushed to commission uncompleted port in Niger state only as electioneering gimmick. We have discovered that no serious dredging of the River Niger took place. If any was even done, it was not intended for any big ship or vessels but barges of low or medium economic activities,” they said.
They lamented that the site of the port has become an eyesore while the river has since reclaimed sands earlier excavated from it.
TBRI also regretted that the construction of access road from Agaie to Baro port awarded many years ago by federal government has also been abandoned
thereby casting doubts over the sincerity of the federal government to actualise the project.
“We therefore call on citizens and other stakeholders in the host state and northern Nigeria in general to join hands in making the project a reality, considering its economic, social and other benefits to the country,” the group said.
Source: blueprint
