• It will improve security on Nigerian waters – Shippers’ Association
Two major stakeholders in the nation’s maritime sector have thrown their weight behind plans by the Nigeria Police to create a Maritime Command.
While, the chairman of Ports Consultative Council (PCC), Otunba Kunle Folarin, said that the new Maritime Police Command would reduce crimes at the ports to the barest minimum, the General Secretary, Shippers Association of Lagos State; Mr Jonathan Nicol said the establishment of the Maritime Police Command would improve security on Nigeria’s territorial waters.
Folarin who stated this in a chat with newsmen in Lagos also explained that the new police command would particularly reduce pilfering at the ports, and called for improvement on police surveillance of the port environment.
“ The Maritime Police needs to be well-equipped with patrol boats, the command should have communication gadgets for wider reach whenever there is a problem, “ he stated.
General Secretary, Shippers Association of Lagos State, Nicol who also spoke in Lagos stated that the new development would reduce smuggling to the barest minimum, even as he described the establishment of the new command as a welcome development, but said that the Marine Police had been in existence before now.
“In those days we used to have the Marine Police and the Marine Police together with the Customs Preventive Department used to patrol our territorial waters.
“The customs service was involved in chasing smugglers, bringing their goods in the night and the Marine Police was also involved in prevention of sea piracy,’’ Nicol said.
He urged the Maritime Police Command to be focused in order to achieve the objective of setting up the command by the Federal Government.
The shipper said that most of the goods imported into the country were containerised and this might be difficult for thieves (wharf rats) to pilfer the contents.
Nicol said that the thieves could only pilfer a container with the connivance of port security agents.
“We expect that the introduction of Maritime Police to eliminate many local smugglers and pirates breaking into containers midstream.
“If the Maritime Police shun bribery, corruption and negotiation, it will succeed, “ Nicol said
But the PCC chairman urged the Nigeria Police to retrain officers of the new command on ways they could effectively work within the marine environment.
“The Maritime Police should protect the berths at the ports, while the Navy should protect the external waterways, “ Folarin said.
Folarin urged the Maritime Police to maintain 24-hour patrol of the nation’s waterways.
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