The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has explained that the Presidential Standing Committee on Private Jetties (PSCPJ) was established by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to ensure that illegal and illicit businesses such as smuggling and importation of contraband do not take place using the jetties.
The General Manager, Lagos Zone of NIWA, Engineer Sambo Mauzu, who said this in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, also disclosed that, it was only NIWA and the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) that can issue licenses to jetty operators.
According to Sambo, the Federal Government committee which was saddled with the responsibility of bringing up guidelines and procedures for the operation of jetties was also asked to ensure that all jetties comply with the guidelines.
He told our correspondent that, any jetty operators that does not originate its license from the NPA or NIWA is operating illegally, even as he explained the Presidential, Committee on Private Jetties was able to spell this out.
He maintained that the committee which was made up of directors of some government agencies was also charged with the responsibility of ensuring that jetties were safe and secured and meet the standard requirement for operations.
“During the first tenure of President Obasanjo, all private jetties in Nigeria where shut down on the basis of allegations of engaging in illegal and illicit activities such as the importation or smuggling of contraband goods or arms and ammunitions”
“Therefore after the closure there was a need to segregate between jetties that were doing genuine legitimate businesses and those that were not. And even for those that were doing so, there was a need for them to comply to certain guild lines that will ensure that such jetties are safe, supervised and meet the requirement of operations”
“That led to the establishment of what is called, the Presidential Standing Committee on Private Jetties (PSCPJ). Membership of that committee was made of, minister of transportation, Customs CG, IGP, CG of Immigration, Chief of the Naval Staff, Office of SGF, Office of the Head of Service of the Federation amongst others that I cannot recall immediately”
Sambo hower said that the committee came up with the idea of ensuring that these jetties meet with the standard after every two years.
“That committee was saddled with the responsibility of Sanitizing and establishing guidelines for the operation of private jetties in Nigeria, that committee has a technical sub-committee it is the technical sub-committee that does that ground work”
“They visited all the jetties and they were drawn from these agencies under transport ministry. There are only two agencies in Nigeria that has control over jetties, it is either NPA or NIWA, any jetty you see in Nigeria even if it is a private jetty, it is either owned or supervised by NPA or NIWA. So after the technical committee had visited all the jetties they came up with guidelines and recommended those of them that should be licensed and that procedure continued every two years”.
He also disclosed that these are the only two agencies that are entitled to issue licenses to jetty operators.
“So if your jetty meets all the conditions you are granted a license by this presidential committee and that license is conveyed to you through the agency that supervises that jetty either NIWA or NPA”, he added.
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