Poised to put an end to the persistent mishaps on the Lagos waterways, the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has said that the agency will commence random visitation to jetties for proper inspection.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily on Tuesday at Marina, Lagos, The General Manager, NIWA, Lagos; Engineer Mauzu Sambo, also said that the agency will be introducing Beach Master at all jetties in the state within two weeks.
He also said that the beach master will be properly trained by merchant navy and a code will be given to them, even as he added that they will be saddled with the responsibilities of education and discipline of the boat captains.
He also disclosed that there will be sessions for the boat captains where staff of the agency can be able to interact directly with them to know their challenges and for proper synergy.
"We will be visiting the jetties at random to ensure that their life jackets are good. The beach master will be there and we will get a personal boat which the beach master will be using to move. We will be introducing trained beach masters in every jetty in Lagos state"
"I want to assure you that by the grace of God they will be in place not later than next two weeks, they will get uniform from us and they are going to get merchant navy training. They are going to have a code and they will be the ones that will educate and also discipline boat captains.
We will also give a season for boat captains only here in this office, so that we can see how we can work together. I believe that this will be the first time something like this will happen here in Nigeria. Maybe somebody at my level is visiting the boat captains, not their managing directors but meeting them directly", he said.
He also added that the agency will introduce a platform where the names and numbers of the search and rescue team will be published in case of emergency.
"We will also let you know the names and numbers of our search and rescue operatives we also have a police command here which will be working 24 hours. So we have no reason not to rescue people in time of emergency", he concluded.
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