The Senate yesterday urged the Federal Government to make funds available to contractors handling Baro River Port project for final completion of the project.
The call followed the adoption of a motion at plenary on urgent need to complete all the necessary components of Baro River Port Project of Lower River Niger.
The motion was sponsored by Sen.Bima Enagi (APC-Niger) and co-sponsored by 22 other senators.
Moving the motion at plenary, Enagi said the Federal Government had awarded contract for dredging of the Lower River Niger, construction of Baro Port and installation of cargo equipment.
He said the project was designed to ensure access road for movement of goods and services to Northern part of the country for improvement in socio-economic activities in the north.
He said Baro port project was expected to generate 3,000 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs.
He added that the project on completion would improve the road network by keeping heavy duty trailers and trucks off the roads.
This, he said would help expand the life span of the roads.
Enagi said the Baro Port and cargo handling equipment components of the project had been completed and commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari on January 19.
He, however, said the Lambata -Bida road awarded in 2015 and the Agaie-Katcha-Baro road awarded in 2018, if completed, would facilitate movement of goods from the port to the northern part of the country.
The lawmaker maintained that the Lambata -Bida road had only recorded 20 per cent completion while the Agaie-Katcha-Baro road recorded only per cent progress.
He said funding of the access roads had been grossly inadequate as N670 million and N4.5 billion so far had been released for the project out of the N17 billion and N33 billion appropriated.
Enagi said that over N40 billion had been expended on the various components of the Baro port project without achieving any significant progress towards utilisation of the port.
Also contributing, Sen. Adamu Alero, (APC Kebbi), who seconded the motion said there was the need to also complete construction of second Niger Bridge.
He said heavy vehicles conveying goods for haulage were contributing in destroying the roads in the country.
Alero said the completion of the Baro port would have significant improvement on the economy.
Sen. Ali Ndume, (APC-Boronu) urged President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan to personally meet with the executive to provide funding for completion of the project.
He said the senate could use the opportunity of working on the budget at the moment to appropriate fund for the project.
Senate in its resolution also resolved to urge the Federal Government to facilitate rehabilitation of the narrow gauge railway in Baro to ensure rapid socio -economic growth of Nigeria.
It also urged for continuous dredging and maintenance of National Inland Water Ways (NIWA) of the River and Benue Niger to ensure navigability.
The Senate also mandated its Committees on Marine Transport and Works to investigate activities on the Baro Port and make recommendations to facilitate its completion.
Earlier, the Senate at plenary also received and adopted an Ad-hoc Committee on investigation of the causes of pipeline explosions in Komkom, Rivers and Ijeguu in Lagos state.
The report was presented by Sen. Gobir Ibrahim (APC-Sokoto).
The senate having adopted the 16 point recommendations of the report, urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to identify those responsible for the pipeline explosion for appropriate sanction.

Founder, Jesus Peoples Mission, Nzuko Onyejiuwa, has called on Nigerians irrespective of their political or religious differences, to pray for leaders and not to castigate them.
Onyejiuwa, who made the call in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Lafia, said that Nigerians should rather pray and advice the leaders when necessary.
According to him, when citizens show gratitude to leaders for the little things they have done, they would be encouraged to do more.
He said that leadership, particularly in a heterogeneous society such as Nigeria, was an uphill task, adding that the leaders needed the grace of God to succeed.
“Given the alarming rate of crime and criminality across the country, we seriously need God intervention to salvage us.
“The rate at which things are happening from the North to the South, human efforts alone would not work unless God intervenes,” the Cleric said.
He commended Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State for his inclusiveness in governance and development strides since hi assumption of office.
“He has been able to tackle security, construct roads and schools, install solar-powered streetlights in all Local Government Areas, rollout youths and empowerment programmes.
“The governor has also allocated 200 seats to Christians to perform in the 2019 pilgrimage among others,” Onyejiuwa said.
He said if a person could do such things within five months in office, such a person needed prayers and encouragement to do more.
The man of God, however, appealed to the governor to rehabilitate urban roads especially within Lafia, the state capital, to uplift the face of the city.
He said that the road leading to his Church located behind the old GSM village, Makurdi road in Lafia, needs rehabilitation and appealed to the governor to help fix it.

The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, states Ministries of Works and contractors to consider using concrete pavement technology in the construction of roads.
This was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Rep. Livinus Makwe (PDP-Ebonyi) at the plenary of Tuesday.
Makwe noted that the prevalent method of road construction in the country using asphalt was always ending up in roads with short lifespan, particularly in areas prone to heavy rainfall.
Such roads, he said, could easily develop potholes that account for the high percentage of fatal accidents on the roads in the country.
According to the lawmaker, in spite of improvements in road construction technology, Nigeria is still living in the past by expending efforts and scarce resources in their billions, in regularly resurfacing and maintaining asphalted roads.
“While most nations have transited to cost and life-saving technologies in road construction, Nigeria is still stuck with asphalt technology, which suffers short time span, high net costs and aggravates the rate of loss of lives on the roads.
“The concrete paved roads are very durable, carry very high traffic loads and require little or no maintenance over the course of several years.