The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr Dakuku Peterside has said that the agency does not have what it takes to fulfill its mandate ensuring safety on the nation’s waters, without relying on assistance from the Nigerian Navy.
This is coming at a time that maritime industry stakeholders have expressed displeasure over recent activities of the Nigerian Navy, especially the random arrest of seafarers onboard vessels.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that not less than 250 seafarers were arrested and detained by the Navy without getting the approval of NIMASA which has the powers to arrest and detain vessels.
But, speaking during a courtesy visit to his office by executives of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) last week, Peterside said the agency was not even aware of any seafarer being detained in prison.
Represented at the meeting by Capt Elei Green Igbogi, Assistant Director, International Ship and Port Security, Peterside said: "NIMASA as an agency does not have the power to bite, but we do that through the Navy. If you want to detain a ship and you don't place armed men onboard the ship, before you know it, the ship would sail away, especially the foreign vessels, they come into our waters, they perpetrate a lot of evils and they just leave"
"The seafarers in prison, you are just mentioning that to us now, I will advise that you follow the right channel to address the situation"
"The Navy has their functions clearly defined, the Merchant Shipping Act is on its own, Nigeria is one country and we are not divided, it is a collaborative effort that builds the house"
"If NIMASA goes away to do something different from what the Navy is doing and we don't complement ourselves, there would always be friction, but NIMASA has taken the bull by its horn by having an MoU with the Navy, and we work within the confines of that" he said.
The DG admitted that recently, the agency was having challenges with piracy and sea robbery within Nigerian waterways, but that the Navy is always on top of it to make sure the waterways are safe.
"Since this present management came onboard, a lot of reforms are being done, for instance the anti-piracy bill is before the National Assembly, it has actually gone through first and second reading, I believe very soon it would be passed into law, the process of changing our laws takes a very long time and the agency is mindful of this", he said.
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