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Russia-Ukraine conflict may lead to seafarers shortage, hike in wages—Experts

 

Shipping experts have expressed concerns over the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine which they said may lead to a crisis in the supply chain of seafarers.
Their worries were predicated on the large numbers of both the Russian and Ukrainian seafarers which make up a large chunk of seafarers worldwide and which the conflict may affect.

According to analysts, nearly 1.9 million seafarers are currently operating over 74,000 vessels in the global merchant fleet.

They said with the Russia Ukraine conflict showing no signs of easing and all focus on humanitarian logistics and aid, one key component of the supply chain – as usual – is being ignored and they are the seafarers.

Nearly 1.9 million seafarers are currently operating over 74,000 vessels in the global merchant fleet, according to the Seafarer Workforce Report published in 2021 by BIMCO and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

“Of this total workforce, 198,123 (10.5 percent) of seafarers are Russian of which 71,652 are officers and 126,471 are ratings.

 Ukraine accounts for 76,442 (4 percent) of seafarers of which 47,058 are officers and 29,383 are ratings.

 Combined they represent 14.5 percent of the global workforce.

“Shipping is currently responsible for the movement of nearly 90 percent of global trade.

“Seafarers have been at the forefront of the response to the Covid Pandemic, ensuring essential supplies of food, fuel and medicine continue to reach their destinations,” ICS said in a statement.

Guy Platten, Secretary-General, ICS, added: “To maintain this unfettered trade, seafarers must be able to join and disembark ships (crew change) freely across the world.

 “With flights canceled in the region, this will become increasingly difficult.
“The ability to pay seafarers also needs to be maintained via international banking systems.
“The safety of our seafarers is our absolute priority. We call on all parties to ensure that seafarers do not become collateral damage in any actions that governments or others may take.

“Seafarers have been at the forefront of keeping trade flowing through the pandemic and we hope that all parties will continue to facilitate free passage of goods and these key workers at this time.”

Research by ICS shows that an average ship has a mix of at least three nationalities on board, and sometimes as many as 30.

“Three languages were the minimum spoken on the average ship.”

ICS has also called on governments around the world to ensure access to medical care for seafarers after it emerged that crews continue to be refused urgent treatment at ports during the pandemic.

Given this background, the International Maritime Organization held an Extraordinary Council Session on Mach 10 and 11, and the agenda was on addressing the impacts on shipping and seafarers of the situation in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

“We anticipate we will receive specific submissions from Member-States as well as from NGOs in consultative status but mostly it will allow for States to make statements as to their views,” an official told The STAT Media Group.

The IMO Council consists of 40 Member States, elected by the IMO Assembly.

The International Group of P&I Clubs (marine insurance providers) personnel sub-committee has issued a contract addendum to assist owners and crew, especially Ukrainian crew, who would like to alter their contracts.

The last container ship in Ukraine – Joseph Schulte, capable of carrying 9,400 20-foot containers – arrived on the eve of Russia’s invasion and has not moved in 12 days, its crew and cargo safe but caught in a war zone, Bloomberg reported.

Seafarers and the ship are “safe and well,” according to a statement from a crisis PR agency that responded to an email request sent to Germany-based Bernhard Schulte that is listed as the ship’s owner, the report added.

Russian/Ukrainian seafarers more on tankers

“Russian and Ukrainian officers are employed in high numbers on tanker vessels, both oil and gas, which already have the tightest supply of qualified and experienced officers.

” Hence it is on these trades that the main effects will be felt,” Drewry said in an update.

“A reasonable proportion of Russian and Ukrainian seafarers will already have foreign homes, and will therefore be less restricted in their travel to or from vessels during crew changes.

“But Drewry estimates these to represent less than 20 percent of the available pool and visa implications could arise if the free movement of Russian citizens is limited by the international community.

“Hence, a large number will therefore be directly affected now.”

Ukrainian seafarers currently at sea will find repatriation very difficult with a best case that they travel to a nearby country by air and then onward home via whatever means is available, Drewry added.

“This obviously carries considerable danger but with family possibly still in situation and a desire to defend their country some may return.
For Ukrainian seafarers off duty at home when the conflict started, the situation will be even more difficult.

 For a range of reasons, it is thought that they will find it very difficult or impossible to travel to join a vessel for their next scheduled tour.”

Given the fast-changing situation, employers may think twice about employing Russian seafarers if they cannot reliably get them to vessels as planned.

 “Banking restrictions imposed on Russia may also make payment of seafarers problematic, adding to reasons companies may look to other nationalities to crew their vessels.
Indian seafarers are likely to be the prime option, although there are also other alternative nationalities.
 Indian wage rates are similar to Russian and Ukrainian and supply numbers are high.

However, as mentioned earlier, given pre-existing tight officer availability, there will only be limited skilled labour available to fill any gaps.”

Drewry is expecting the conflict’s impacts on seafarer availability to lead to wage inflation, particularly for officers where supply conditions were already tight.

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Alleged N8.5bn Fraud: You Have Case To Answer, Lagos Court Tells NIMASA Staff, Ex-JTF Commander

The Eyewitness Reporter 

Justice Ayokunle Faji of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Monday, April 22, 2024, told a former Commander of the Joint Military Task Force, Operation Pulo Shield, Major-General Emmanuel Atewe (rtd.), and a staff of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Kime Engonzu, that they have a case to answer in the alleged N8.5bn money laundering case brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Atewe and Engonzu are standing trial on a 22-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N8, 537,586,798.58, which also involves a former Director-General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi, and Josephine Otuaga, also a staff of NIMASA.

One of the counts reads: “That you, Patrick Ziadeke Akpobolokemi, Major General Emmanuel Atewe, Kime Engozu, and Josphine Otuaga, sometime in 2014, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Court, with intent to defraud, conspired amongst yourselves to commit an offence to wit: conversion of the sum of N8,537,586,798.58 property of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2012 and punishable under Section 15 (3) of the same Act.”

They pleaded “not guilty” to the charges, thereby prompting the commencement of their trial.

In the course of the trial, the prosecution called several witnesses and subsequently closed its case against the defendants.

However, the defendants, rather than open their defence, filed a no-case-submission.

Akpobolokemi had, in a no-case submission, filed by his lawyer, Dr. Joseph Nwobike, SAN, prayed the court for an acquittal without having him present a defence.

Ruling on the no-case submission on Monday, Justice  Faji discharged and acquitted Akpobolokemi and Otuaga, the fourth defendant.

 He, however, ruled that Atewe, the second defendant, and Engonzu, the third defendant, should open their defence in counts 12 to 22 of the charge.
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EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukayode, threatens to resign if Yahaya Bello is not brought to justice.

Ola Olukayode, EFCC Chairman
The Eyewitness Reporter
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,  (EFCC) Mr Ola Olukoyede has expressed his determination to bring the fleeing former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello to justice, vowing to resign if he fails to do so.
The EFCC boss made the pledge on Tuesday in Abuja while addressing media executives at the Corporate Headquarters of the commission.
Bello has been on the run and declared wanted by the anti-graft agency over an allegation of money laundering to the tube of N80,246,470,089.88 (Eighty Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million, Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand and  Eighty Nine Naira, Eighty Eight Kobo).
The EFCC boss declared that the fleeing former Kogi State Governor can only run but cannot hide.
He also revealed how he made personal efforts to invite the suspect to respond to investigations regarding his alleged involvement in money laundering allegations.

According to the EFCC Chairman,  he had a telephone conversation with Bello offering him ample opportunities to present himself for interrogation by investigators of the EFCC.

“On my honour, I put a call to him to honour him as a former governor.

” He said, I can’t come, claiming that a certain lady has surrounded the EFCC with over 100 Journalists to embarrass or intimidate him and all that stuff.
“I said if that is your fear, I will make you come directly to my floor. I will invite my operatives to interrogate you in my own office.
” What could be more honourable than that? Do you know what he said? ‘Can’t they come to my village?’ My Director of Investigations also sent a message to him”, he said.
The EFCC’s boss said he was worried at the report of larceny available to the EFCC concerning the former governor.
 “A sitting governor, because he knew he was going, he moved money directly from the government’s account to a bureau-de-change to pay his children’s school fees in advance, $720,000, in anticipation that he was going to leave government house”, he said.
He denied the claim that he was being used against Bello, saying he inherited the case file on the suspect.
Olukoyede also disclosed that the EFCC, in its bid to ensure the safety and stability of the foreign exchange market, has uncovered a new fraudulent scheme called P2P, peer to peer trading scheme.
The platform, according to him, is operating outside the official banking and financial corridors, with more than 300 (Three hundred) accounts linked to it already frozen by the EFCC.
He disclosed that if the EFCC has not moved against these Ponzi operators, the Nigerian economy would have once again crashed.
He reaffirmed the commitment of the  Commission to the economic growth and development of the country,   promising that the EFCC would not relent in the exercise of its mandate.

He told the media executives that the Commission has recovered more than N120billion from fraudsters within six months and secured more than 1300 convictions.

He called on Nigerians to be more dedicated to the nation,  insisting that patriotic Nigerians should offer more support to the EFCC because the  Commission is crucial to the growth and development of Nigeria.

‘’If you support the EFCC, you are working for the growth of Nigeria. We all have stakes in the well-being of our nation”, he said.
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EFCC denies disobeying court order on Yahaya Bello

Ola Olukayode, EFCC Chairman

The Eyewitness Reporter 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) has denied the widely held claim that it flouted a court order restraining it from arresting or harassing Yahaya Bello, the former Governor of Kogi State.

The EFCC said this clarification became necessary against the backdrop of arguments and counter-arguments on whether the anti-graft agency has disobeyed a court order concerning the botched arrest of the former governor of Kogi State.

In a Press Statement signed by the EFCC’s Acting Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, the Commission clearly pointed out that though Bello sought refuge in a fundamental rights enforcement action through an order granted by  Justice Isa Jamil Abdulallahi of the Kogi State High Court, the order did not vitiate or nullify an order made by the Federal High Court for the arrest of the former governor for the purpose of his arraignment.“The enrolled Order of the Kogi State High Court only granted an order to enforce Bello’s right to personal liberty and freedom of movement, it didn’t preclude the Federal High Court ‘to make any Order as it may deem just in the determination of the rights of the Applicant and the Respondent as may be submitted to her for consideration and determination”,  he said.

He further stressed that “The Order made by the Federal  High Court for the arrest of Mr. Yahaya Bello for the purpose of his arraignment is not in conflict with the Order of the Kogi State High Court.

“The case before the Federal High Court is a criminal charge which is different from the fundamental rights enforcement action that is the subject of an appeal”.

Uwujaren pointed out that the EFCC had a shining track record in the prosecution of politically exposed persons and would continue to exercise its mandate in the overall interest of the nation.

” He admonished Bello to turn himself in and answer to the charges preferred against him by the Commission.

He called on all patriotic Nigerians to lend their voices in support of the Commission stressing that ” the EFCC will not relent in its quest to wrestle corruption to the ground”

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