Headlines

ill-fated boat in Niger state on illegal operation—- NIWA

Bola Oyebamiji, NIWA MD

— deploys more river marshalls on 24-hour surveillance as rescue efforts continue

Funso OLOJO

More bodies are being recovered from the Gbajibo River, Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State after a wooden boat carrying 300 passengers capsized on Tuesday night of October 1st, 2024.

As of yesterday, the water marshalls of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) with the collaboration of the Nigeria state’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and local divers have recovered 70 bodies, rescued 150 persons while the search for remaining missing passengers was still ongoing.

However, Mrs. Sarat Braimah, the Lagos Area Manager of NIWA has accused the operators of the ill-fated boat of illegal operations as they sailed at 8: 30 pm which was against the water transportation code which has outlawed night sailing.

Mrs. Braimah, who absolved NIWA of complicity in the tragic incident following a public outrage over what was described as the negligence of the Authority, disclosed that the four water marshalls deployed to the Gbajibo River where the incident occurred had already closed from duty for the day and left the jetty at 8 pm while the boat loaded at 8: 30 pm.

The NIWA Area Manager however said the Marshalls went to the other side of the jetty while the ill-fated boat was loading without their knowledge.

Meanwhile, NIWA has attributed the unfortunate incident to flagrant disregard for transportation code by the boat operators such as overloading( the wooden boat carried 300 passengers), use of sub- standard boat which is a wooden carved boat without necessary navigational aids, lack of wearing of safety vests and night sailing which has been banned.

As a result of this incident, Mrs. Braimah disclosed that more water marshalls will be deployed to Niger state and other northern states where night sailing is prevalent for 24-hour surveillance.

“NIWA just constituted river marshalls who were posted to every state and Niger state in particular has 24 water marshalls while in Mokwa Local government Area where the incident happened, they have four Marshalls.” the NIWA Area Manager disclosed.

She lamented the prevalence of night sailing in the North despite its ban which she said was a major challenge for NIWA.

” NIWA will now make it 24-hour surveillance on waterways in that area in order to prevent reoccurrence” stated Mrs Braimah.

According to her, the recently gazetted transportation code launched by NIWA and cascaded to every state contains penalties for infractions of safety standards.

” Last month, NIWA was everywhere on sensitization of the revering public on this code. But, unfortunately, this tragic incident happened.

” From now on, night sailing is our target. We are going to recruit more river marshalls who will be working on 24- 24-hour basis. This will hopefully deter people and boat operators from night sailing” Mrs Braimah said.

She revealed that all the local wooden boats used in the area are sub-standard and have no navigational aids to sustain night travel.

“NIWA has deployed a modern ferry to Niger state which will be put to use by next week.

Speaking further on the efforts of NIWA to arrest incessant boat mishaps in the North, Mrs. Braimah disclosed that the agency has established training centres in all the states of the Federation, especially in the Northern states where most of the boat operators lack formal education and required training to operate boats.

” At the end of such training which includes safe navigation and done in their local dialect, because most of them are illiterate, NIWA issues them certificates and we also monitor their operations”the NIWA

Areas Manager stated.

She further revealed that NIWA has a set of standards for boat building.

” We have gone to boat builders to license them and give them specifications on the type of boats they should build,” Mrs Braimah said.

In addition to all these safety measures, Braimah claimed that NIWA has a department that carries out surveys and inspections of boats for seaworthiness, an exercise carried out in January every year.

She also disclosed that the authority collaborates with other sister agencies to ensure the waterways are safe.

According to her, in Niger state where the latest boat mishap happened, NIWA has collaboration with the state’s NEMA while it has with Lagos State Waterways Authority( LASWA).

Gbajibo river in Mokwa Local government Area of Niger state is notorious for boat accidents.

It would be recalled that in September 2023, a similar tragic incident happened when a boat carrying 50 passengers capsized, killing 24 persons who were on their way to their farms for harvest.

Headlines

MWUN threatens to picket shipping companies, terminal operators over manipulation of pension remittances of seafarers, dockworkers

Gloria Odion

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria(MWUN) has accused terminal operators, shipping companies and ship owners of shortchanging dockworkers and seafarers in their employment in the remittance of their pensions to the appropriate authorities.

In a statement by the union led by Comrade Francis Bunu Abi, the erring service providers were allegedly either holding back the deductions made from the salaries of their staff into the pension funds scheme or under- remitting the deductions.

The union warned of dire consequences for such act which it regarded as unethical and illegal and threatened to shut down any service provider found culpable in this illegal act.

“The leadership of the Union recently got the wind of these employers of labour and terminal operators over their acts of irregular remittance of their employees pensions to its appropriate quarters.

“Thus shortchanging the Seafarers and the Dockworkers, both categories of workers from the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria.

“It was also learnt that some Ship Owners and Terminal Operators have allegedly stopped the remittance of Dockworkers and Seafarers’ PSA in their employ, which is a gross violation of labour laws.

” As a result, the President -General of the Union, Comrade Bunu, stated that the Union will have no other option than to descend heavily and bring to book all the earring managements of these companies working against the ethics and practices of labour rules in their various companies.

“The Delta State- born labour leader made this point known, stressing that it’s unlawful to deny workers their pensions rights either by crook or hook,; and may not hesitate to call out these Concessionaires and Shipping Companies that have defaulted in the payment of the statutory pensions of the Union Members.

“Comrade Bunu also said that these erring companies in the Maritime sector would be shut down if this ugly trend is not reversed to status quo.” the statement concluded.

Headlines

Tantita Security to bankroll 2025 OTC in USA

Gloria Odion

The foremost security provider in Nigeria, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL) has been confirmed as the official sponsor of the 2025 Offshore Technology conference scheduled to hold in Houston Texas, United States on 5-8 May , 2025 .

Executive Director, Technical and operations , Tantita security services Limited, Captain Wareddi Enisuoh in an interview with journalists on Friday, said the company attracted the OTC conference lucrative sponsorship deal in recognition of its capacity to deliver on the conference.

Founded in 1969 , Offshore Technology conference is a series of conferences and exhibitions, focused on exchanging technical knowledge relevant to the development of offshore energy resources , primarily Oil and Natural Gas.

The conference also serves as the meeting place for the brightest minds to share ideas , discuss, debate and build consensus around the most pressing challenges and innovations in the offshore energy sector.

This year’s exhibitors , speakers and attendees represent some of the highest calibre professionals from more than 100 countries .

Customs

Customs shuns N12 trillion inflated revenue target imposed by National Assembly

— focuses on realising N6.5 trillion 2025 target

Funso OLOJO

The Nigeria Customs Service may have tactically shrugged off the imposition of the N12 trillion revenue target by the National Assembly.

It could be recalled that government gave the NCS ₦6.5 trillion revenue target for 2025.

This followed the impressive revenue performance of the service in 2024 when it surpassed that year’s target of N5.07 trillion by 20.2 percent.

However , in January, 2025, the National Assembly joint committee on Finance led by its chairmen, Senator Sani Musa and Hon. James Faleke, believed that the projection of N6.5 trillion revenue target given to the customs was conservative and encouraged the NCS to aim higher.

Consequently, the joint committee slammed a whooping sum of N12 trillion as revenue target, doubling the initial N6.5 trillion projected revenue.

This humongous target sparked off an outrage among perplexed stakeholders who felt the target imposed by the law makers was outrageous and unrealistic which they feared may stretch the capacity of the customs to a breaking point and put unnecessary pressure on the men and officers of the agency.

Indication that the Customs authority may not be well disposed to the imposed target of N12 trillion by the National Assembly emerged recently when the Comptroller -General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, was giving account of the activities of the service in the first quarter of 2025.

While giving the analysis of the revenue performance of the service during the period under review, Adeniyi benchmarked the revenue generated by the service during the first quarter of 2025 by N6.5 trillion revenue target given by the Federal Ministry of Finance, thus jettisoning the N12 trillion imposed by the National Assembly.

“ Against our annual target of ₦6,580,000,000,000.00, the first quarter’s proportional benchmark stood at ₦1,645,000,000,000.00.

“I’m proud to announce we’ve exceeded this target by ₦106.5 billion, achieving 106.47% of our quarterly projection.

” This outstanding performance represents a substantial 29.96% increase compared to the same period in 2024, where we collected

₦1,347,705,251,658.31″ Adewale stated, while giving the analysis of the performance of the service in the first three months of the year.

Analysts believed that from the analysis of the revenue performance of the NCS in the first quarter of the year which was predicated on the N6.5 trillion revenue target, it was obvious that the service was not paying much attention to the imposed N12 trillion, but rather focusing on how to meet the more realistic target of N 6 .5 trillion.

” You can see that the CGC did not make mention of the N12 trillion imposed by the National Assembly which presupposes that the unrealistic amount is not in the reckoning of the Customs” a customs broker who plies his trade at Apapa port, said, pleading for anonymity.

” Where on earth do they want the Customs to realize such an humongous amount of money in a depressed economy, in a country where importation has plummeted due to the unfriendly policies of government?

“It is unfortunate that these people (the law makers) have lost touch with the current economic realities in the country.

” All what they are after is to witch hunt government agencies to go and hunt for money for them to share.

” If not, how could they sit down in the comfort of their air conditioned offices and imposed such amount of revenue for customs to realize.

” Of course, the pressure would be on the men and officers of the service who will in turn go after the hapless importers and their agents in the most brutal way to raise the imposed target.

” It is unfortunate that the lawmakers, who are expected to make laws that will encourage export drive of the Federal government, are those asking the customs to focus more on the import goods where such money could be realized” another freight forwarder, who did not want his name in print but based at Tin Can Island port, declared.