The Nigerian Ports Authority has said it is looking forward to receiving the required information to enable full investigation into the 282 vessels that allegedly got missing between 2010 and 2016.
The Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport had last Thursdayasked the NPA to, in four days, account for the 282 vessels, which it alleged berthed in Nigeria’s seaports without records.
The NPA, in a statement on Wednesday, noted that documents containing a list of 29 items, which were a combination of vessels and details of individual Bill of Ladings of consignments carried by different vessels, were handed over by the committee to its representatives for review.
It said it received on Monday another set of 10 volumes of items numbering one to 1,252 alleged to have been transported by vessels said that called at the NPA, adding that this was delivered to it by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council on the instructions of the Senate committee.
The statement signed by the Principal Manager, Public Affairs, Ibrahim Nasiru, said the NPA had reviewed the documents as requested by the committee and had made some discoveries.
It said, “Of the 29 items handed over to the NPA on July 20, 2017, only five vessels were identifiable. We discovered that the other 24 items are repetitions of the five vessels that were identified. A report to this effect, with relevant supporting documents evidencing payment of all charges for the five vessels, has been forwarded to the Senate committee as requested.
“Concerning the 10 volumes of items numbering one to 1,252 handed over to the NPA by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the NPA was unable to conduct a meaningful review as the documents did not provide the data that will enable verification.”
According to the statement, no vessel names were provided; no dates of arrival of the vessels were given; no port of call and name of the terminal where the vessels berthed were provided; and no rotation number of vessels was supplied.
