Last week’s story about the 282 ships that were allegedly unaccounted for at the nation’s seaports has been described as unfounded and unsubstantiated.
The Senate had last week given the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Hadiza Bala Usman four days to explain the whereabouts of over 282 vessels allegedly missing from the sea ports.
Chairman, Senate committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff; Senator Hope Uzodinma gave the ultimatum in Abuja, at an investigative hearing on N30 trillion allegedly lost through leakages in revenue collectable by Customs and other agencies.
Uzodinma said the information on the vessels was imperative and must be available within four days.
“The NPA is the custodian of the vessels; it received the cargoes and the terminal is theirs.
“We want to know under whose authority the cargoes were released, “he said.
The lawmaker said that the committee had also uncovered the activities of a port cabal that had defrauded the nation to the tune of over N30 trillion.
“It is common knowledge that infractions abound in daily transactions at the nation’s ports, commercial banks, shipping companies, terminal owners and operators.
“They connive at ease with officials to defraud the nation of trillions of Naira.
“Preliminary evidence before us suggests that this is the case in all sea ports,’’ he said.
“We are looking for these vessels. We have the date of arrival, the ports of discharge and manifest.
“Everything is with us but in information available to us, no money was collected by Customs, the NPA or any other person.
“So you have four days to do your written explanation otherwise, we will consider it a financial crime,’’ he threatened.
But, industry sources told our correspondents last weekend that there is no substance in the Senate’s allegations. They explained that it is the same story that the former Senior Special Assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Maritime; Mr Leke Oyewole.
Those who spoke on condition of anonymity explained that an alarm like that was first raised in 2005 by Mr Oyewole about some missing ships, for which investigations were carried out.
One of our sources who is a senior member of Nigerian Association of Master Mariners explained that, the way the Senator Uzodinma panel went to town with the story of missing 282 ships and missing revenue will give the impression that the ships vanished after berthing at Nigerian ports and that there were no records.
He said: “Leke Oyewole raised a similar alarm some years back and nothing came out of it because there is no truth in it. Somebody must have given the same dummy to the Senate. I wish they double-checked before going public with such a false claim”.
However, an insider source within the NPA also corroborated what the Master Mariner said. The staff who is in Monitoring and Compliance department told our correspondent that, the way port operations are structured, it will be difficult to hide the arrival and berthing of ships.
“A ship is not a bird that can fly in and fly out. Before sailing into any harbour, there are statutory and safety obligations; the ship also pays revenue to different categories of private and public organisations, including terminal operators”
“Are you telling me that, terminal operators will not collect their revenue and allow the ship to go, even if agencies like NIMASA, Port Health decide to compromise”, he added.
“More importantly, is the Senate saying that Customs, NPA, NIMASA will all agree to erase details of arrival, departure and cargoes on board 282 ships?”
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