There
are indications that the recent alarmed raised by the Senate through
its Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Senator
Hope Uzodinma, about the missing 282 ships may not be unconnected
with the with the revocation of Calabar dredging contract of which
the Senate had major interest.
 |
Managing
Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman
|
This
is even as the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA from whose custody the
vessels were alleged to have disappeared, has faulted claims by
Uzodinma, that 282 ships went ‘missing’ from the port between
2010 and 2016; and asked the committee to provide more information to
enable it respond to the allegation
In
a statement signed by the authority's Head of Public Affairs, Mallam
Ibrahim Nasiru, NPA said the Senate Committee handed over documents
containing a list of 29 items, which are a combination of vessels
and details of individual Bill of Ladings of consignments carried by
different vessels to representatives of NPA for review.
NPA
said it received another set of 10 volumes of items numbering
1-1,252 alleged to have been transported by vessels said to have
called at Nigerian ports.
The
documents, it stated, were delivered to it by the Nigerian Shippers
Council on the instructions of the Senate Committee.
NPA
said after reviewing the documents, it discovered that “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.”
On
the latest set of documents it received through the Nigerian
Shippers’ Council, NPA said it was unable to conduct a meaningful
review, as the documents failed to provide the data that will enable
verification.
The
Senate Committee documents, according to NPA, did not have the names
of the vessels, dates of arrival of the vessels, ports of call,
names of terminals where the vessels berthed or rotation number.
“The
authority has conveyed these observations to the Senate Committee
and looks forward to receiving the required information to enable
full investigation.
“On
the whole, NPA restates its commitment to every single effort aimed
at sanitising operations at the ports and will cooperate with all
stakeholders and arms of government in the achievement of same,”
the statement added
Meanwhile,
some maritime analysts have also faulted the Senate's claim saying
that it was move to blackmail the NPA over the Calabar dredging
project which was contracted to Senator Hope Uzodimma.
The
project ran into trouble water when the NPA refused to pay for worked
not done
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