The International Transport workers Federation has said that many Nigerian seafarers died in 2018 due to piracy and armed robbery on Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea.
Chairman, Seafarers Section, ITF African Region, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju stated this while fielding questions from journalists at NIMASA Awards and Dinner in Lagos at the weekend.
Adeyanju who is also the President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) lamented that many businesses and international shipping companies have relocated from Nigeria due to piracy scourge.
He appealed to the federal government to further strengthen the various maritime security agencies, especially the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to perform better in year 2019.
The MWUN President also said that many investors have left the country due to the bad access roads leading to the nation’s ports, especially the Tin Can Island Ports.
He said, “our expectations for 2019 is very high in the sense that, we pray that this year would be better than last year, we lost so many investors because of the bad road, now that the road is on the verge of completion, we pray goods things would happen this year"
"NIMASA which is the regulatory agency are doing a very nice job, we pray that this year, they are going to improve on that, we have been having the security challenges for a couple of years but they are trying their best, but we want Government to strengthen them and empower them to do more"
It has even reduced, because I could remember that last year, we lost so many seafarers and we lost so many investors as well, this is as a result of piracy coming into our waters, now what we need to do is pray that this year would be better than last year" he said.
The unionist reiterated that "the roads to the port is a major challenge, the Tin Can Island port access should be looked at, there should be an palliative measure applied so that the investment that have ran away would come back"
Adeyanju also disclosed that safety kit for dockworkers at the various terminals have improved, he said kitting of dockworkers is part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) recently signed by the union with terminal operators.
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