About a month after the Managing Director of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA); Senator Olorunimbe Mamora escaped death on Lagos inland waterways by whiskers, the agency has commenced the removal of major wrecks on Nigerian waterways.
Disclosing this exclusively to Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, Area Manager, Lagos Office of NIWA; Engr Muazu Sambo said some major wrecks on the waters have already been marked, identified, and are currently being removed after approval was issued from the Transportation Ministry.
Sambo told our correspondent that the wrecks are being removed on a ‘no cure no pay basis’.
Even though he did not disclose the name of the company, Sambo disclosed that the wrecks would be sold and that from the proceeds, the contractor gets paid while the remaining revenue goes into NIWA purse.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the Senator Mamora was involved in an accident when on the tour of the facilities of the authority in the Lagos area office in November 2018. The boat he was traveling on hit an abandoned wreck that was hidden under the brown water. The impact threw the NIWA boss and others off balance, as the boat was almost ripped open.
Also on the entourage of the MD was the Area Manager, Lagos Office of NIWA, Muazu Sambo, the one-time acting Managing Director, NIWA, Barr Danladi Ibrahim, journalists, and several others who joined the MD in the tour of facilities of the authority.
After the accident, another boat was brought in to freight him and others to continue their journey.
Coming on the heels of the accident, Sambo told Shipping Position Daily that, “there are two actions that have already been taken, one is wrecks that have been identified long before the last MD’s visit, we have submitted a report on that and we are waiting funding for the survey, identification, marking and subsequent removal”
“Before then, there are wrecks that have already been marked, identified, approval sought for from the ministry, advertised and as we speak, the removal is in progress”
“Wreck removal is a cumbersome process, it requires ministerial approval, the reason is that these are abandoned assets costing large sums of money, they are owned by individuals and entities, you would want to make sure that you give people a fair opportunity to remove their assets from the water, if they don’t do so within a particular set time provided by law, government can move in and remove the wrecks without recourse”
“The approach that NIWA takes is that a company that is interested in removing the wrecks goes in at no cure no pay basis, that means that you remove the wreck, it is worth some money, you sell it, under the supervision of NIWA, after you deduct your expenses, the net profit is shared on the ratio o ftwo to one between you and NIWA”
“The wrecks also generate money; this is the approach that we use because of budgetary constraints. Ordinarily, NIWA should be funded enough to award a contract for wrecks removal, but we have financial constraints”, he said.
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