The royal father of Ihim Isiama Autonomous Community in Isiala Mbano LGA, Imo State, and CEO of Olinco Marine Travel Services, HRM Eze (Dr) Oliver Ohanwe, has added his voice to the grossing calls on the current administration not to allow the Urashi River Port scheme flagged off by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to be forgotten.
Eze Ohanwe in an interview with media executives in Lagos averred that the development of the seaport will address most of the economic problems of the South East geopolitical zone and hasten the economic growth of Nigeria.
According to him, all the South East leaders of thought and traditional rulers are currently working on a proposed sensitization conference slated to hold in October to drum up support of relevant authorities for the development of the Urashi Seaport.
He said that the development of the seaport becomes necessary in view of the fact that about 90% of those who use port services aside the big multinational companies, are South East businessmen who, according to him, dominate the business of import and export of goods in the country.
According to him, “The commercial cities are here in Onitsha (OMATA), Aba (Ariaria), Enugu and the rest of them, they are also the major importers.
“The Customs and Terminal Operators in every seaport in Nigeria know that those who contribute to the huge revenue of this nation through maritime services are the Igbos.
“Therefore, it’s a welcome idea that the Urashi River Port is a topic to be discussed and as a project to be handled as pioneered by the Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state. It is indeed a project that ought to be taken seriously by all stakeholders and the Federal Government,” the Monarch said.
He argued that those saying that Imo State or the entire South East is landlocked are naïve because “what they do not know is that the Urashi River leads to Blue River and the Atlantic Ocean and therefore have the capacity to accommodate vessels of any capacity. The draft of that seaport will be very encouraging that no matter the tonnage of any ship, it will successfully anchor at the shores of the River.”
According to him, developing the Urashi Seaport is the greatest favour the government can do to the Igbo businessmen as that will reduce the hardship the go through to bring their goods and the huge cost they have to pay to bring their imports from Lagos or Port Harcourt to Aba, Onitsha, Enugu and Nnewi.
“What am saying is with regard to the huge transport cost and the level of extortion along the roads from Lagos to the South East by officials of government and security agencies, such costs could be saved in the best interest of importers and consumers.
“River Urashi I can say from my knowledge of seaport has an answer to our economic problems for the South East and South/South.”
He however, said that his fear is that the project seems being frustrated by some vested interests who would go extra miles to make sure it doesn’t see the light of the day because they know that Urashi Seaport coming on stream will put many of them out of business or dry up their source of revenue.
