Mr Boss Mustapha, the Managing Director of National Inland Waterways Authority ( NIWA), on Thursday said the agency had commenced routine maintenance of the dredged channel of River Niger.

Mustapha confirmed in a statement in Lokoja that the maintenance dredging would only be from Ajaokuta to Onitsha.

He said that the maintenance was to ensure smooth navigation of vessels and barges, adding that the exercise would be carried out by his workers.

The dredging of the 523-kilometre lower River Niger was executed at a cost of N36 billion.

According to him, the action is part of efforts to reposition NIWA to carry out its core mandate of providing navigation on the nation’s inland waterways all the year round.

Mustapha said that NIWA had capable and productive hands to carry out the maintenance and promised that he would continue to ensure that only NIWA staff handled its equipment during his tenure.

He said that a dredging committee that would carry out regular maintenance of the dredged channel had been inaugurated.

Mustapha gave assurances that the maintenance would be extended to other channels from time to time.

NAN