House Committee of Marine warns contractors over River Niger dredging

The  House of Representative Committee on Marine Transport has warned contractors handling the lower River Niger dredging to stick to the contract agreement and deliver as at when due.
Speaking to newsmen during a recent tour of the river, the House Committee Chairman Honourable Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi said that the Nigerian maritime industry has to move to the next level and urged the contractors to work within the stipulated time in the agreement.

The  House of Representative Committee on Marine Transport has warned contractors handling the lower River Niger dredging to stick to the contract agreement and deliver as at when due.
Speaking to newsmen during a recent tour of the river, the House Committee Chairman Honourable Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi said that the Nigerian maritime industry has to move to the next level and urged the contractors to work within the stipulated time in the agreement.
Ugwuanyi stated that because of the importance of the river to the Eastern part of the country; all hands must be on deck to ensure completion of the river.
“The Onitsha river port is very strategic to South Eastern business”
Already, the Onitsha river port has fully rehabilitated waiting to commissioned and concessioned.
Speaking in similar vein, a member of the Committee Honourable Ibrahim Mohammed Ebo said that any contractor found wanting with regards to the dredging of the River Niger will dealt with according to the law.
Ebo who raised the motion on the floor of the House of Representative that more than two years after the contract was awarded no significant has been done and frowned at the fact the six months to the expiration of the contract maintenance dredging has not started.
His words “Two years after the time line for the completion of the dredging of the River Niger, the River Niger has not been completely dredged.
“You should understand that dredging encompasses two aspects, one is the capital dredging and the maintenance dredging.
“What we have seen so far is what you have seen because we came together, some of the dredging is properly done, while some part are not well done but the job is complete yet as we have been because they are still working on the maintenance dredging, as soon as we are told that the maintenance dredging is okay we will be able to certify it okay.
For now you cannot even move too freely particularly when you get to lot five (5) from Jimeta to Baro is still very okay but the last time we came from Baro it was terrible and situation was very terrible so we find it difficult to understand exactly whether maintenance dredging is going on or not.
“As we were coming also you could also see that we could not see a single dredging machine doing any maintenance dredging, maintenance is suppose to be a continues thing for two years and government has provided some money running into billion for that purpose”, he added.