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President Muhammadu Buhari today received at the State House Abuja the Olu of Warri, HM Ogiame Ikenwoli and a delegation of Delta state indigenes including former Delta state Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.
Also on the entourage are the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, Chief Ayiri Emami, Chief Brown Mene, and others.
President @MBuhari received Olu of Warri, HM Ogiame Ikenwoli and a delegation of Delta State indigenes including former Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan and @thenff Chairman, Amaju Pinnick at the State House.#AsoVillaToday pic.twitter.com/ChkLmy85YE
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— Government of Nigeria (@NigeriaGov) February 23, 2018
Speaking with State House correspondents shortly after meeting with Buhari, the Olu said the essence of the visit was to intimate the President on the need to give attention to key projects of national importance domicile in his kingdom, that rottening away.
“Our ports are not working,” he said, stressing that the Warri Port and Coco Port are “very good and solid” ports.
“While other ports in other areas are working, ours are just left unutilised and so we want the ports to be activated so that they can start working, and that will mop up a lot of youths from the streets,” he further stated.
Drawing attention of President Buhari to the gas city, which the king described as “a fantastic project,” he said, “The last president did the ground breaking before he left but since then nothing has been happening. We want the federal government to hasten action on it because that will mop up over 300,000 youth from the streets. When our youths are engaged, the restiveness will be minimised”.
“We have the Escravos road, the railway that is going on now, we want it to come to the area. By that, the economic activities will thrive better and Nigerians will be happy for it,” he added.
The Olu assured that Buhari will attend to his requests saying “he will do his best,” adding “His hands are tied because everybody demands his attention, that he will follow to ensure things are done”.
The immediate past governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was part of the delegation also spoke briefly and said he was encouraged with the president’s response on the challenges presented by the Olu of Warri.
“We presented the challenges of security, you know we are in an area in the Niger Delta where there has been a lot of insecurity challenges.
“We also have challenges of ecological problems, we also have the problem of infrastructure development, problem of access to ports which is very critical. Delta has six ports and to be able to get to the ports there is a place called Escravos bar which has been very shallow.
“Even the water channel is highly stilted and so he was appealing to the federal government to dredge the Escravos channels so that the bigger ships will be able to come into the ports of Delta, especially the Warri ports,” Uduaghan said.