There are indications that the long talked about falsification of Bill of Laden on petroleum product importation into Nigeria by fraudulent marketers have reduced drastically following the partial removal of the subsidy funds which is payable to marketers by the Federal Government early in the year.
There are indications that the long talked about falsification of Bill of Laden on petroleum product importation into Nigeria by fraudulent marketers have reduced drastically following the partial removal of the subsidy funds which is payable to marketers by the Federal Government early in the year.
Following reports of under-dealings and other manners of manipulations by importers, the Federal Government had slashed the subsidy funds payable to marketers in year 2012 to N656.30 billion and this has in turn shot up the prices of petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS)
Speaking at an event in Lagos last week, the Director of Shipping Development at Nigeria’s apex maritime regulatory body; the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Capt. Wareedi Eniosuoh disclosed out that the rate at which marketers falsify bill of laden in order to increase their claims has reduced since the subsidy saga began.
Eniosuoh revealed that there are some shipping companies whose job before now is not to carry cargoes, but only collection of subsidy. According to him, the shipping companies collude with a foreign ship outside Lagos to bring in fuel that has already been subsidized, they pump it into the tank farms and they collect subsidy.
“There were ships that actually came into the country with water inside their tanks, they declare them as oil and collected subsidy” he alleged.
Continuing, he stressed that, “there was one particular vessel that was attacked by pirates, it had 28,000mt when it was attacked, and it said the pirates took 5,000 mt of PMS, when it was released, I wanted to go into the ship for investigation but they refused, the ship never discharged its cargo and each time it reported an attack, I always recorded it, when the ship was attacked again, it was said to be carrying 30,000mt and I asked them how come they were attacked and yet they got more oil”.
Eniosuoh however said that even though the practice appears to be over, the regulatory agencies will still be on the look out to nab marketers looking for available opportunity to perpetrate the act.
He lamented that oil smugglers on Nigerian waters especially the Lagos area have capitalized on the fact that NIMASA does not work from 4pm on Fridays till 11am on Mondays and that they use this period to carry out their illicit acts. “If you are one of such operators, just go and tell your owners that the DG has approved weekend works for NIMASA” he announced.
According to him, oil thefts which includes illegal bunkering, ship-to-ship transfers (STS), pipeline vandalism and siphoning that occurs in the Niger Delta creeks costs the country about US$ 2billion monthly.
“This is going on because there is no inter-agency cooperation in the country” he lamented.
Discussion about this post