By Jennifer Y Omiloli
The request followed a plenary motion to complete all the necessary components of the Lower River Niger Baro River Port Project.
Sen. Bima Enagi (APC-Niger) introduced the motion and 22 other senators co-sponsored it.
Moving the motion to plenary, Enagi said the federal government had awarded contracts to dredge the Lower River Niger, build Baro Port, and install cargo equipment.
He said the project was designed to ensure access road to the northern part of the country for the movement of goods and services to improve socio-economic activities in the north.
He said it was planned that the Baro port project would create 3,000 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs.
He added that by keeping heavy duty trailers and trucks off the highways, the completed project would strengthen the road network.
This, he said, would help to extend the roads ‘ life span.
Enagi said the project’s components of the Baro Port and cargo handling equipment were completed and unveiled on Jan. 19 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
But he said the Lambata-Bida road awarded in 2015 and the Agaie-Katcha-Baro road awarded in 2018 will facilitate the movement of goods from the port to the northern part of the country if completed.
The lawmaker maintained that only 20 percent of the Lambata -Bida road had been completed while only one percent of the Agaie-Katcha-Baro road was progressing.
He said access road funding was grossly inadequate as N670 million and N4.5 billion from the N17 billion and N33 billion allocated so far had been released for the project.
Enagi said that more than N40 billion was spent on the different components of the Baro port project without any significant progress towards port use.
He said it was disturbing that this laudable venture would be so overlooked with all its potential benefits.
Also participating, Sen. Adamu Alero (APC Kebbi), who sponsored the motion, said that the construction of the second Niger Bridge also needed to be completed.
He said heavy vehicles carrying goods for transport helped destroy the country’s highways.
Alero said it would dramatically improve the economy to complete the Baro terminal.
Sen. Ali Ndume (APC-Boronu) urged Senate President Ahmad Lawan to meet the executive personally to provide funding for the project’s completion.
He said the senate would now use the opportunity to work on the budget to fund the project adequately.
In its resolution, the Senate also voted to encourage the Federal Government to promote the reconstruction of Baro’s narrow gage railway to ensure Nigeria’s rapid socio-economic growth.
It also urged that the National Inland Water Ways (NIWA) of the River and Benue Niger be continuously dredged and maintained to ensure navigability.
The Senate also ordered its Marine Transport and Works Committees to study the Baro Port activities and make recommendations to encourage their completion.
Earlier, the Senate also received and adopted an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the causes of pipeline explosions in the Lagos state of Komkom, Rivers and Ijeguu.
Sen. Gobir Ibrahim (APC-Sokoto) presented the report.
Having adopted the report’s 16-point suggestions, the Senate urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to classify for effective sanction those responsible for the pipeline explosion.
Dr. Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate, also ordered the Petroleum Upstream Senate Committee to invite the NNPC to find out what steps it had put in place to protect the country’s pipelines.
The Senate has approved twelve bills for first reading.
The bills are introduced by Sen. Oduah Stella (PDP Anambra) and Constituency Development Fund Establishment Act, 2019, sponsored by Sen. Ali Ndume (APC Borno).
Others are, among others, Sen. Oko Rose (PDP Cross River) backed Compulsory Free Universal Education Act Amendment Bill, 2019.
