The Senator representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, has decried the absence of private investors in the state.

He said the newly commissioned Pleasure Park, which Governor Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike revealed attracts no fewer than 4,000 visitors per week, should have attracted private investors.

Abe, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) spoke while addressing some of his supporters and friends in Port Harcourt, the State capital.

The Senator said: “I was very surprised the other day when our governor was on television and he was saying that the Port Harcourt Pleasure Park, which was built by the Rivers State Government, that they were recording over 4,000 visitors per week. Yet, the Rivers State Government is awarding a contract to Julius Berger to build a restaurant in the park.

“If you are somebody who understands how things work, you will be shocked that in a place that is recording over 4,000 visitors in a week, the government has to go and build a restaurant. It tells you there is no private investment flowing into the state.”

Abe stated that time has come for the people of the state to forget about the past and focus on the future by organising the economy of the state.

He said: “The issue here that we have always talked about is the future of Rivers State, not the past. We cannot continue to fight and kill ourselves over what has passed. What has passed has passed but what does the future hold? How do we make the future better?

“And in all these things that people are saying, I don’t hear anybody discuss the issues that are central to our future as a people and that is the economy. The question of jobs; where are the jobs for the people?

“But if we organised our economy properly, it will base the future of the state on the right things to do. There will be not just the Naira, there will be Dollar, there will be Euro in the pockets of Rivers people. I think that is the future we should be worried about.”

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