Barely two weeks after it impounded an oil vessel, MT Jacksonville on Lagos waters, the Inter Agency Maritime Task Force on Acts of Illegalities on Nigerian Waters {IAMTF} is set to investigate activities of tank farms in Lagos.
The task force which is headed by Navy Commodore Dele Ezeoba and which was inaugurated last month by Chief of Defence Staff; Air Marshal Paul Dike met with maritime sector stakeholders between December 10 and 12, 2008.
It is took time off the meeting to embark on an unscheduled inspection of Lagos waters from where it discovered large scale unwholesome practices, a development which led its chairman to declare that “recent findings by the task force which comprises men of the Nigeria Navy, Customs, State Security Services, Civil Defiance and other security agencies have confirmed the gross illegality being perpetrated on the country’s territorial waters.”
According to him, the decision to patrol Lagos waters yielded some revelations about shady operations by some vessels in the country’s waters, putting to question on the security and adherence to rules and regulations on maritime activities in Nigeria.
Commodore Ezeoba disclosed that as at December 11, 2008, there were about 128 vessels within Lagos bar, about 60 percent of which are engaged in acts of illegalities ranging from unauthorized entry, non declaration of correct cargo, evasion of duties and ports charges, unauthorized midstream discharges and environmental pollution amongst others.
Shipping Position Weekly gathered that it was the discovery that led to the decision to inspect the tank farms in Lagos to ascertain their compliance to guidelines especially those that deal with freighting of petroleum products to their facilities.
Our source confirmed that the inspection will come up this week after which the committee will pay a similar visit to such facilities and jetties outside Lagos.
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