IPOB urges Igbos to use Onne Port for import, export business

By Cyprian  Ebele, Onitsha 

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Friday, urged Igbos to make use of Onne Port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for their import and export businesses

The spokesperson of IPOB, Emma Powerful, made this known through in a statement signed and issued to newsmen in Onitsha.

He assured Igbos that with time, things will normalize and there will be great development in Biafran land.

“We know that with time everything will fall in line as long as one of the IPOB’s  missions is to develop Biafra land as we pursue the  project for the restoration of Biafra. 

“Biafra restoration is our mission but along this journey, we must not burn down our land because that’s not the way we want to restore Biafra , we must also make lives easier for our people along this journey if the zoo did not push us to a full blow war like they did in 1968-1970  era. 

“As long as IPOB exists, we must make sure that our people are supported to make use of Onne port for their business. Onne Port complex is situated on the Bonny River Estuary along Ogu Creek in Onne, River state. It is just about 19km from Igweocha (Port Harcourt)  and the port spreads across three Local Government Areas in Rivers state: Bonny, Eleme, and Ogu-Bolo.

“Don’t forget that Onne port is one of the biggest Oil and Gas logistic bases in West Africa. It consists of two major facilities: Federal Ocean terminal and Federal Lighter Terminal. The Onne Port handles over 65 per cent of Nigeria’s export cargoes. According to a Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) data, the Onne port handled about 80% of Nigeria’s export cargos between 2012 and 2017.

“The Port is highly industrialized with modern facilities and equipment that can stand the test of time. The port is a multipurpose seaport. That is, in addition to Oil and Gas operations, other operations are carried out there. They include, General Cargoes, Bulk Cargoes (Dry and Wet), Oil Well Equipment, Containerized Cargoes, and other logistic services.

“It is the first port in Nigeria that operated the Landlord PORT Model. This model was devised to encourage private sector participation in the port Industry.

Onne port is located in an Oil and Gas Free Zone. It is one of the largest Oil and Gas Free Zone in the world. Onne port has over 100 companies licensed to work at the port.

“The Port is very secure and customer friendly environment for people doing business there. The port has one of the biggest harbour mobile cranes in Africa (Liebherr 600). The crane has a lifting capacity of 230 metric tons of containers. Currently, the  Onne Port is Nigeria’s most efficiently run seaport.

“Irrespective of Atiku Abubakar and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu co owned majority of the shares from the port, we must make sure we use Onne port while with time, Alex Otti might succeed in building another port for commercial purpose in  Biafraland,” he stated. . 

The spokesperson urged Igbo businessmen Importing goods from Onne port that it cannot be as bad as importing from Lagos, when compared with the distance, insecurity, extortions along the way and paramilitary agencies  that one found every 1km from Lagos to Southeast.

“Let’s start making use of Onne port, we must make it work efficiently and cost effective with time” he stressed.