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Home » SENATE SET TO TABLE COAST GUARD BILL

SENATE SET TO TABLE COAST GUARD BILL

by Joshua
August 2, 2009
in Uncategorized

The upper legislature has received the draft of a bill that will establish the elite Coast Guard in Nigeria in what sources at the National Assembly explained as an affirmative move to stem the rising tide of insecurity on Nigerian waters and channels.
Sponsored by the chairman, Senate committee on marine transport, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, the bill is titled “Nigerian Coast Guard Bill” 2009 and it has already been gazetted and will soon be tabled for the statutory first reading at the upper legislature.    
Shipping Position Weekly confirmed exclusively last week that the Nigerian Coast Guard Bill is expected to create a Nigerian Coast Guard to carry out flag and port state control functions without necessarily undermining the relevance of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) which is Nigeria’s focal point in maritime safety administration matters.
“Once created, the Coast Guard  will take up the responsibility of ensuring safety on Nigerian waters, with specific emphasis on safety of ships and crafts coming into and sailing on Nigerian waters”, our source at the national Assembly disclosed.
“We are going to fashion it out after similar institutions in other parts of the world, and in doing this, we will ensure that the proposed law takes care of all users of Nigerian waters”, he explained further.
Asked if the new agency is not going to take over some critical aspect of the statutory responsibilities of NIMASA, our source stressed: “It’s not about taken up NIMASA’s job as a flag state control institution, but it is about having an agency that will effectively police the nation’s waterways, you know that NIMASA does not carry arms, and you also know that there has been a lot of unchecked, armed attacks on Nigerian waters”.
He referred to the sporadic attacks on fishing trawlers leading to the death of many crew and even captains. “We have heard and read about the attack on local and foreign ships on Nigerian waters, this is not good for us, and you know that shipping is an international business, attacks on ships are global issues”.
According to him, “it is the frequency of attacks, the inability to check them and the need to regulate and control usage and also protect users of Nigerian waterways that made Senator Gbemi Saraki to sponsor the bill in her capacity as the chairman, Senate committee on marine transport”.  
About three weeks ago, pirates attacked at least four ships at the Lagos anchorage while waiting for pilotage services and subsequent berthing in Apapa and Tin Can Island ports. In the attack, a captain was badly injured while the crew were brutalized. The development led to the tightening of security around ships at anchorage.
Among several reported and unreported cases of attacks on fishing trawlers, the one involving a fishing trawler FT Star 1 which belong to a one time defence minister, General Theophilus Danjuma in which the ship’s captain Pius Italume was killed appears most celebrated..
We also confirmed that the economic implications of continued state of insecurity on Nigerian waters may have gingered the Senator’s interests in the bill.
Shipping Position Weekly had reported exclusively in its Volume Two, 36th edition that “piracy statistics for the first half of 2009 showed a significant upsurge, a development which has affected insurance premium on goods coming to volatile nations, including Nigeria.
Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Clubs have equally warned that piracy attacks off Nigerian coast pose a mounting threat to international shipping.
The London-based club had raised its concern over the growing level of violence off the oil-rich nation, suggesting that tactics used off Somalia are now being employed off Nigerian coast.
Nigeria ranks second only to the notorious Somalia on the list of countries prone to piracy and sea robbery attacks. The effect of the rinsing attacks is a likely 10-fold increase in insurance premiums for shipping companies.

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