Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has threatened to shut down the Bonny-Bille-Nembe Jetty in Port Harcourt which conveys travellers to various riverine communities in the state if criminal violence continues in the area.
The governor said the zeal to provide an enabling environment for sea travellers and boost the state’s marine economy spurred his administration to remodel the once dilapidated jetty first built in the 1950s.
Wike stated this at the inauguration of the remodeled Bonny-Bille-Nembe Jetty by the Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, on Saturday.
Wike in a statement by his media aide, Kelvin Wike, said he decided to remodel the once filthy and disused jetty because he believed the people of the state deserved the best infrastructure required to boost economic activities and enhance the well-being of the people.
The governor noted that while the government would not stop to provide infrastructure needed to create an enabling environment for business to thrive, it would not tolerate criminal activities around the remodeled jetty.
“Those of you too who will use this place, don’t turn it to a place of criminality. If you do that I will shut it down. I have no room for criminality and I want to tell anybody who cares,” he stated.
Tambuwal, who commended Wike for using the resources of the state to address pressing needs of the people, said, “It is not just about earning revenues, be it revenues from FAAC or from IGR.
“It is about having the grace of God in applying those revenues to the needs of the people. That is what I see here happening in Rivers State.”
Also speaking, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Uche Secondus, advised the federal government to emulate Wike in the provision of basis amenities for Nigerians, faulting the decision of the Federal Government to borrow money from bank accounts that had been dormant in the past three years.
Secondus stated, “It means that the country has gone to the lowest level if we can go to borrow money from unclaimed dividends and accounts that have not been used for three years. Maybe due to litigation, maybe for one reason or the other the accounts are not touched by the families. These are monies the Federal Government is ready now to borrow.’’
