Minister of Transportation,
Rotimi Amaechi has said that cabals are frustrating the recently approved $198m
maritime security contract.
Amaechi vowed to publicly mention
names of saboteurs while speaking at a Maritime Stakeholders’ Interactive Forum
held in Warri, Delta State on Thursday.
He said “Reason, why vessels will
not come to the Eastern ports, is because there is war insurance due to
insecurity in the ports here.
“The war insurance means if the
goods cost N10,000 in Lagos, it will cost N20,000 here because there is an
extra cost on it due to Insecurity issues. Even as a minister, I can’t enter a
boat ride from Warri to Port Harcourt due to insecurity issues, but I can move
around Lagos at any time of the day.
“I once asked a former Governor
of Anambra State, Peter Obi, why people from Anambra don’t import from Port
Harcourt port, and he said it cost less to import from Lagos and move to
Onitsha even with the price they pay on the road. It is cheaper to import from
Lagos to Aba, yet Aba to Port Harcourt is a 30-minute drive.
“For shipowners, you need to do a
petition to Mr President. The President approved a contract of $195m for
maritime security, but there are people in the system sabotaging the contract
because it will restore security in the water. I won’t say who they are until
it gets out of control. We are still battling for the contract to take place,
but if it gets out of place, we will name them publicly, including the security
people involved.
“There are people who make
billions of Dollars from the insecurity on the water, so they don’t want
security on the water because if we secure the water, all their rubbish will
go.
“There are businesses which
provide the vessel for oil companies in the name of providing security. The
moment we secure the water, they are out of jobs?”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com