A former youth leader in Bonny Local Government Area, Rivers State, Mr. Agomienye Tobin has described the landing jetty at the Bonny Waterfront in Port Harcourt as a death trap.

Mr. Tobin, who barred his mind in a chat with The Tide correspondent in Port Harcourt recently said the deplorable condition of the jetty and the dehumanising situation being experienced by the people of Bonny and its environs calls for urgent attention from the state government.

According to him, as the only route commuters used in travelling to Bonny and other communities within the local government area, and moreso, the host of major multi-national companies like the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG), Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mobil, Chevron and others needed immediate attention to ameliorate their suffering especially while transporting commercial foodstuffs, building materials and other bulk items.

He said it was unfortunate that most workers of these companies used helicopters and private jetties to and from Bonny kingdom for their work, and so could not consider the plight of the people as part of their social corporate responsibility, pointing out that the call for a new landing jetty for the people of the ancient kingdom of Bonny is long overdue.

Mr. Tobin, the former youth leader of Tobin Family House and chairman, Utility of Finima Community said it was alarming that the people during low tide always have it very rough to board or disembark from a boat, as sometime people wonder if they had gone on military training, stressing that they jump from one boat to another and sometimes fell into the mud or lost their luggages in the process.

He however, disclosed that contract for the construction of that jetty was given to a son of the soil, who surveyed the area with his team of engineers, but regretted that since then nothing was done and called on the Amanyanabo of Bonny kingdom, King Edward Asimini Dappa Pepple, his council of chiefs and the good people of the area to join hands together  appeal to all concerned for the construction of a new landing jetty for the tax paying people of Bonny kingdom. “Let the people benefit the dividends of democracy and avoid more casualties and lost of lives”, he noted.

Collins Barasimeye