The Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice,
CEPEJ, has condemned the scrapping of the
Nigerian Maritime University project located in
Okerenkoko, Warri South-West Area of Delta
State.

Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had
said the university which was said to have been
proposed by the Nigerian Maritime
Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA,

would be scrapped while all money spent on the
project returned to the Federal Government.
But an Ijaw leader warned Amaechi not to
tamper with the university. "You
(Amaechi) cannot scrap the university in
Okerenkoko. Why is the government
scrapping it?"

Similar, one of the leaders in Okerenkoko, Chief
Michael Johnny, criticized the purported
scrapping of the Maritime University in the
riverside community.

Chief Johnny said: "I am urging the Minister of
Transport to rescind his decision because it is
not in the interest of Okerenkoko people of
Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State and even the
entire Niger Delta region."

Also, the Ama-Okosu of Ogbe Ijoh, Warri
Kingdom, His Royal Majesty Couple Oromoni,
Monbene II, National Coordinator of Host
Communities Producing Oil and Gas, Prince
Maikpobi Okareme, Ijaw leader, Chief Godspower
Gbenekame, Okerenkoko leader, Chief Michael
Johnny and others have asked the minister to
rescind the decision.

HRM Oromoni said, There is no reason for it to
scrap the school. Assuming President
Muhammadu Buhari sets up a university in the
North and his tenure elapsed, does that warrant
scrapping the institution.

"Amaechi, who is saying no one will go there to
school, is Port-Harcourt safer than Delta? Port
Harcourt is more porous, security wise, than
Delta.

Amaechi is trying to create more problems
in this country. Are there no security problems in
where the minister comes from? With all the
security problems in Port Harcorut, has it
stopped people from schooling there?

"We are not asking Amaechi to send his children
to the university, there are parents, who are very
much interested in sending their children there
to school.
"Scrapping the school will not help the current
under development of the Niger Delta region.

The Maritime University at Okerenkoko is
synonymous with peace and development of the
region. Our children will go there to school. We
say the region is not developed and someone
brought school to develop the area, they are
saying it is scrapped, it is unacceptable to our
people."
Chief Gbenekame on his part, asked,

"Are we
Nigerians? The Ijaws of Niger Delta, the Ijaws of
Gbaramatu, are we Nigerians? The Niger Delta
people are they Nigerians? I am surprised.
Unfortunately, the minister that sold the idea is a
Niger Deltan."

National Coordinator of the Host Communities
Producing Oil and Gas, Prince Okareme, in chat
with Vanguard, urged Amaechi, to rescind the
decision.

He said: "If the problem is the terrain as the
minister claimed, then he can relocate it to
another Ijaw area in Delta State or preferably,
the Delta School of Marine Technology, Bomadi
should be taken over by the Federal
Government."

I just think it's sad the way Nigerians react to
every issues based on tribalism.

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