The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the Rehabilitation and Opertionality of the Baro Inland Port has said that late President Muhammadu Buhari was misguided by bureaucrats about the functionality and take off of the port.

The Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Saidu Abdullahi stated this during a visit to the Baro Inland Port in Agaie Local Government Area of Niger State.

“President Buhari was here himself. President Buhari was misguided by the bureaucrats.

We are here with the technocrats, and I am sure together we will be able to provide solutions. What we have not had, as far as Baro report is concerned, in the past, is to bring all these stakeholders under one umbrella and that is what we have succeeded in doing now.”

The Committeee while expressing satisfaction over the equipment of the Port frowned at the access road where the contract has been given for over seven years and has not been completed.

“I don’t think this is something that we should be happy and comfortable with as a country. If contracts are given, there is something called project management. You expect that from conception to the end of it, there should be a timeline attached to them.

“But this project, like I said, has been given for more than six to seven years now, and we are still where we are. In fact, I have had calls to interface with the Federal Ministry of Works to actually know where the status of this work is, and what they are doing about the laxity from the contractors’ side on getting the roads established”, he stated.

Abduklahi dispelled the notion from the people that the visit had political meaning, saying that the committee was set up to see how the Baro Port would be functional and look into what was stopping it from being operational.

He stated that the committee would meet with major stakeholders in its bid to provide solutions that would make the Baro Port work.

“With what we have seen now, we’re better informed, better guided, and we’ll go back to the Assembly to engage other stakeholders again. At the end of it, I’m confident that we’ll be able to come up with solutions that will make the port functional.”

The Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA)’s Business Manager, Business Development, Adetola James who represented the NUWA Managing Director said that the place was commissioned in 2019 adding that since then, the place has been underutilized.

He expressed optimism that the visit by the committee would make the place functional and operational as it is meant to.

Adetola explained that NIWA had been trying its best to make the port work explaining that the major challenge is fund which is needed for anything that needs to be done for the port to become functional.

“Everything that a port needs to work is on ground and from what the Committee said, the access road is very key and needs to be worked on while other agencies will need to collaborate together so that everything will be connected.”, he said. (The Nation)