Pursuant to its mandate as the Designated Authority (DA) for the implementation of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code in Nigeria, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has shut three jetties and port facilities for non-compliance with the provisions of the code.
The default facilities are Heyden Petroleum Jetty Ijora Lagos; Waziri Jetty, Dockyard Road Apapa Lagos and Starz Marine Shipyard Limited Onne in Rivers State. These facilities have persistently failed to comply with the ISPS code necessitating their closure in order to forestall a situation where security breaches in such facilities will negatively impact the compliant ones.
The Director General of NIMASA, Dr. Dakuku Peterside expressed this determination of the Agency to enforce the code while hosting a pre-assessment team from the United States Coast Guard (USCG) recently. He said that “ultimately all of us are working for a common purpose, a safer world through safety and security of the maritime sub sector. If we fix our different corners of the earth, the whole world will be safer for everybody. And so no effort should be spared in trying to guarantee safety and security”.
All shut facilities are to remain closed until the managers of such facilities correct the identified deficiencies in line with the dictates of the Code as the Agency aims to achieve 100% compliance with the cooperation of all stakeholders. This exercise is a continuous one.
These closures are in exercise of the Agency’s powers in line with provisions of Part VIII of the ISPS Code Implementation Regulations 2014 under which the facilities were adjudged to be non-compliant despite repeated warnings to remedy the deficiencies.
Meanwhile, the Director General of NIMASA has described as laughable the constitution of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry by Governor Nyesom Wike to investigate the alleged violence that marred the December 10, 2016 rerun election in the state.
Dr. Peterside likened the action of Governor Wike to the proverbial witch who cried the previous night and the child died the following day, adding that the governor has no shame as he continues to ridicule the office he occupies.
Questioning the moral justification for the governor’s action, Dr. Peterside wondered, “is there nobody telling the governor the truth? Here is a governor who told Rivers people not to attend an investigative panel set up by the Police to probe issues surrounding the election and an audio recording even went viral where the governor threatened INEC officials with death.
“Is it not laughable that the same governor has now set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to probe issues surrounding the election and he expects Rivers people to obey him, what manner of a governor is Nyesom Wike?
“How can a responsible governor be urging Rivers people to be lawless. How can such a governor call on Rivers people not to obey police investigation and yet expect them to obey his own kangaroo judicial commission?
“The same Wike accused police of seeking to achieve a pre-determined goal in its investigation to nail PDP members and I ask, what goal is the governor seeking to achieve with his own panel of inquiry? To exonerate PDP members and pronounce APC members guilty?”
Dr Peterside, who is also the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said Wike remains an accused in the matter and could therefore not set up an investigative panel, else it is dead on arrival.
“I call on the Justice Chinwendu Nwogu-led panel to be very careful not to be used by Wike to achieve a dubious end. We all recall the Omereji panel and what the governor wanted to use it to achieve. In the end, his evil plan failed.
“Justice Nwogu was only recently made a judge by Governor Wike. I hope he is not being used to do the bidding of the governor and the PDP. I admonish the Judge to be circumspect in his dealings knowing that posterity awaits him if he allows himself to be a willing tool in the governor’s hands,” Dr. Peterside stressed.
