Nigerian Ship Owners Spoil For Showdown Over FG’s N16bn Contract

An ominous cloud is hanging on the Nigeria’s maritime domain, threatening to shatter the fragile peace as Nigerian ship owners have resolved not to subject their vessels to inspection by a private company recently contracted by the Federal Government to oversee security at sea.

The ship owners under the aegis of the Indigenous Ship owners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) have stated that none of its members should allow his ships to either be intercepted, stopped, boarded, searched or regulated by officials or agents of the company, Messrs Global West Vessel Specialist Nigeria Limited (GWVSNL).

GWVSNL, it was learnt, recently signed a contract with the Federal Ministry of Transport to, henceforth, undertake the policing of the nation’s waterways.

The development, which has been widely condemned by maritime stakeholders as well as opposition political parties, is coming on the heels of botched attempts by the Presidency to create a maritime security agency, a body, which, had it come into being, would have seen the nation’s apex maritime regulatory organ, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the traditional defender of the nation’s territorial waters, the Nigerian Navy, reduced to serving the whims of the nascent agency.

Nigeria holds the shameful record of being a favourite zone for pirates, second only to Somalia, a country that has been ravaged by endless crises since the ouster in 1991 of the now late President Siad Barre.

The Navy and NIMASA have, in securing and safeguarding the Nigerian maritime domain, enjoyed great synergy through the Maritime Guard Command domiciled in NIMASA and comprising officers and ratings.

It was reliably gathered that in spite of strident outcry against the GWVNSL arrangement in view of the obvious national security implications, the company, which is allegedly linked to an ex-militant leader from the Niger Delta, Mr. Government Ekpemupolo,a.k.a Tompolo, has commenced business.

Confirming the development, ISAN Chairman, Chief Isaac Morakinyo Jolapamo, told journalists that he had received several alerts from some of his colleagues that GWVNSL’s officials and agents had allegedly been harassing them on the seas.

Jolapamo explained that when he received the alerts, he immediately called the NIMASA Director-General, Mr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi, requesting him to “call the people to order.”