The House of Representatives has expressed concern over increasing acts of illegalities perpetrated by some operators and users of the Eastern Ports.
?The House made its feelings known when its Committee on Marin Transport visited areas within the Eastern Ports operations which include Onne, Delta, Port Harcourt Hard Quay and Calabar Ports on Monday.
?Chairman of the committee, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, said the House was worried at the growing cases of midstream discharges, flagrant diversion of import and export cargoes to private jetties and indiscriminate discharge of oil and gas related cargo at non-designated ports.
?Apart from robbing the Federal Government of huge earning in revenue, he said the acts have rendered ports in the area largely unutilised thereby driving away genuine investors.
?As part of measures to check the criminal activities in the operations of the ports, he said the House, at its plenary session mandated the committee to investigate the matter and report back.
?“The House has mandated us to take a critical look at the high level of inactivity and other problems militating against the full utilization of the Eastern Ports.
?“We have heard stories of midstream discharges and diversion of cargoes to private jetties and indiscriminate discharge of oil and gas related cargoes at non-designated ports and we are determined to get to the root of the issues.
?“We promise to meet with relevant stakeholders in the area, carry out a thorough assessment of the situation and based on our findings, present a detailed report to the House.”
?At Onne Port, the committee took an extensive tour of the Federal Lighter Terminal (FLT), Federal Ocean Terminal (FOT) and the areas of concessionaires, including the Brawal and Intels Terminal respectively.
?It also visited the West African Container Terminal (WACT), West Atlantic Shipyard (WAS) and ongoing projects by Intels.
?In a memorandum submitted to the committee by Intels Nigeria Limited, its General Manager, Mr. Johan Coetzer, called on the Federal Government to enforce the rules on midstream discharge and flagrant diversion of import and export cargoes to private jetties.