July 15, (THEWILL) – More than fourteen years after it was established, the Bayelsa State Plastic industry is now dead without any trace. Located along the Elebele area of the state, the factory has been stripped of all the machines and the corrugated iron sheets which were used for the roofing.
A check at the weekend by the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel of Nigeria Union of journalists, Bayelsa State showed that the hall initially hosting the factory was empty with nothing on ground to show that machines were once mounted in the hall.
Also vandalised are the zinc sheets and the irons used for the building of the hall while the premises have been taken over by weeds without any security man on site.
TRHEWILL recalls that Bayelsa Plastic Industry was established around 2010 by Timipre Sylva, former Governor of the state to manufacture plastics, polythene bags and other plastic materials. It however worked briefly during the time of Governor Seriake Dickson with more than 1000 staff. Even though it had some challenges, it was still functional until the current governor Douye Diri came on board in 2020 and made a concession of the factory to a private firm which totally killed it. When journalists visited the factory recently and reported the sorry state of the factory, nothing was done until the whole machines were looted. Contacted on phone, the Commissioner of Trade, Industry and Investment in the state, Ebieri Jones said he would look into the matter.
He said: “As a journalist, it is your duty to tell me what is happening there. I will go there and check. We are looking for investors for all those ones.”
Amos Okioma is a Correspondent at THEWILL
