A member of the House of Representatives, Solomon Bob, has faulted the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, for stating in a recent live programme that Rivers State was not attracting federal projects, including the ongoing construction of rail lines across the federation, because of insecurity.

In a statement, the federal legislator, who described the remarks as “regrettable and embarrassing”, said the claim was “untrue and an improbable excuse which is not supported by facts.”

According to him, available statistics show that the state was safer than most states in the country.

He stressed that Rivers “is certainly safer than Kaduna and Lagos, two states of which the minister is a habitué.”

Bob added: “Besides those, there are other epicenters of mayhem and death to which the Federal Government is allocating projects and committing enormous resources daily.”

However, the state government has begun refunds of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, (JAMB) fees to indigent students.

The Governor Nyesom Wike administration had recently pledged to take over payment of JAMB fees for students of Rivers origin, hence those who have already purchased the forms are having their money refunded.

The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Kaniye Ebeku, who spoke yesterday in Port Harcourt, stated that the refunds would be affected through the e-payment system, urging candidates to visit the Rivers State Education Management Information System platform (RIvEmis) to supply details for the reimbursement.

He noted that only those captured on the Rivemis platform would benefit from the gesture.

The commissioner, however, directed proprietors of recently approved private schools in the state to visit the same platform for payment of their approval fees as a precondition for the issuance of approval certificates.

He also disclosed that applications for the upgrade of private schools in the state had opened on the platform.