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NPA confirms vessel traffic at Warri port as piracy, others drop

By Chido Okafor, Warri
05 November 2019   |   4:26 am
The management of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Warri, Delta State has attributed the ‘improved activities’ at the facility to the cessation of hostilities among feuding communities for a conducive business environment.

The management of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Warri, Delta State has attributed the ‘improved activities’ at the facility to the cessation of hostilities among feuding communities for a conducive business environment.

The improved security, it noted, had led to more importers using the port instead of the congested Apapa facility in Lagos, leading to more traffic of vessels.Speaking at an event to reward the host Ijaw and Itsekiri communities for keeping the peace, the Delta Ports Manager, Simeon Okeke, confirmed that cases of kidnapping, sea piracy and inter-ethnic clashes were a thing of the past, adding that the development had led to more patronage and created jobs.

He also attributed the increased activities at the port to the dredging of the shallow Escravos axis by the NPA management which enabled bigger vessels to access the facility.His words: “Incidents of security breaches/threats have been reduced to the barest minimum to the extent that we no longer have reports of sea piracy on our channels. We also want to state that the existing peace and security in the Delta ports would not have been possible without the cooperation of the host communities. Peace and security would not have been possible without the cooperation of the royal fathers of the host communities. They have played their various interventionist roles creditably.”

He handed out industrial sewing machines and accessories to beneficiaries, mostly women, from the Ijaw and Itsekiri communities. Okeke said the gadgets were the port management’s little effort to appreciate the communities, explaining that the NPA headquarters would soon roll out its empowerment programme.

He urged the communities to sustain the peace initiative, as it was already yielding dividends for the stakeholders.On their part, representatives of the two communities, Chief Victor Okiri, and Dr. Boyo Omiwere-Ete George, commended NPA for its corporate social responsibility project, urging it to prioritise job creation and robust partnerships.They stated that the era of communal clashes was over, promising the agency of a peaceful work environment.

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