DELTA State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Hon. Austin Chikezie, has expressed confidence that the state government will soon set up machineries to resuscitate and give a facelift to the near moribund Warri Jetty such that it will be reverted to its hitherto standard in which it yielded revenue for the government in the past.
Chikezie gave the assurance in an interview during his working visit to the site. The Commissioner explained that the visit was aimed at assessing what remains of the water project as well as being abreast of all that is needed to reposition the quayside investment.
He pointed out that despite government’s huge investment in the project; the jetty has gone completely moribund such that activities in it have receded to very low ebb, noting that such development is not only worrisome but, also, calls for an urgent attention.
“I am not impressed with what I saw here at the Warri Jetty. The project has gone so bad that it requires a facelift because, as you can see, there is no activity going on here yet; other adjoining jetties in the area are having a lot of activities taking place in them.
“This is supposed to be a revenue yielding investment to the government and that is why we have come to see things for ourselves, when we get back, we will fashion out steps to reactivate it”, Chikezie said.
On how long the resuscitation will take, the Commissioner hinted that: “As soon as I get back to Asaba, we will put the machinery in motion and, after scaling through the necessary bureaucratic hurdles, we will act and this, I can assure, will be done very soon”.
Earlier, the erstwhile head of fishery unit in the establishment, Mr. Judge Arake, while taking the commissioner on a tour of facilities in the site, identified dearth of electrical power supply, unfunctional laboratory, inactive cold room and moribund compressors as some of the legion challenges that have compel the establishment to fizzle out of business.
Arake disclosed that the Jetty had offered many services to both commercial and subsistent fish farmers, including the provision of laboratory services to all fish farmers in the area. He expressed hopes that the Jetty, when resuscitated, will go a long way at fast tracking the speedy realization of the Agricultural reforms and accelerated industrialization component of the current administration in the state.
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