*State Government Abandons Own Plastic Factory While Shopping For Investors
By Rhoda Godwin
Bayelsa government has said that reviving the once thriving state-owned Plastics Company that employed over 1,000 workers was not its priority but rather it is working on attracting private investors.
Mr Ibiere Jones, Commissioner for Trade and Investment of Bayelsa state in a recent interaction with journalists dismissed the idea of reviving the industry and said the policy of the Gov Douye Diri-led government was in attracting private investors.
While Governor Douye Diri has been embarking on fruitless local and foreign trips in search of investors, his appointees are busy investing outside the state, showing a lack of confidence in investing in the state.
For instance, recently, Douye Diri commissioned the Trend Place Hotel, located in Lugbe, a suburb in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Trend’s Place Hotel and Suites is owned by Brig Gen Eric Angaye (Rtd) , a Security Adviser and Coordinator to Bayelsa government.
The dilapidated state of the plastic factory which the current administration inherited in a working status casts doubt about the sincerity of the government’s investment drive.
The commissioner who aught to be in the know seems to put the bulk on journalists. He said: “As a journalist, it is your duty to tell me what is happening there. I will go there and check. It is not only that work that I’m doing”
The trade and investment Commissioner continued:
“As if it is only Bayelsa Plastic that I will focus on. We are looking for investors not all those ones. Please I’m new, give me time let me settle down.”
The factory formerly located along the Elebele area of the state has been stripped off all the machines and the hall that once house the machines also stripped of the corrugated iron sheets which were used for the roofing.
A check last week by the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of journalists, Bayelsa State showed that the hall initially hosting the factory was empty with nothing on ground to show that machines were once mounted in the hall.
Also the zinc sheets and the irons used for the building of the hall were plucked away while the premises has been taken over by weeds.
Recall, that Bayelsa Plastic Industry was established around 2010 by Timipre Sylva, former Governor of the state to manufacture plastics, polytene bags and other plastic materials.
It however worked briefly during the time of Henry Dickson with more than 1000 staff. Even though, it had some challenges but it was still functional until the current governor Douye Diri came on board in 2020 and concession the industry to a private firm who totally killed it.
A group of journalists had visited the factory sometime two years ago and met the factory in a sorry state but was surprised to see that after all the reportage and calling the attention of the government to the sorry state of the factory, nothing was done until when the whole machines were looted.
