Reps to probe N5.8bn Niger port, abandoned for 19 months after commissioning 

The House of Representatives Tuesday reached a decision to undertake an inquiry into circumstances informing the abandonment of Niger State-based Baro Port worth N5.8 billion a year and seven months after President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the facility.

The resolution came after Abdullahi Mamudu, a legislator of the lower arm of the parliament, moved the motion titled: Urgent Need to Investigate the Abandonment of Baro Port 19 Months After Commissioning.

After the adoption of the motion, the House authorised its committees on Works and Housing; Land, Transport, Ports and Harbour as well as Ecological Fund to make an investigation into the situation.

The onus is on them to devise measures that would facilitate the removal of impediments hindering the port’s operations.

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The lawmakers enjoined the Ministry of Works and Housing to make provision for access roads to the facility and similarly requested the Transportation Ministry to issue the deadline and the blueprint for the completion of both the port and rail transportation amenities.

Meanwhile, the lower house on Tuesday firmed up plans to probe the Nigerian Exports Supervision Scheme Fund, claiming that the Ministry of Finance and the central bank had been withdrawing funds from it without appropriation by the parliament.

Abdullahi Abdulkadir had earlier moved the motion.

Thereafter, the House ordered its Committee on Public Accounts to handle the inquiry and file in its findings in four weeks.

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