NIMASA was never part of Navy’s ship burning policy  —Jamoh

The immediate past Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Bashir Jamoh, has revealed that the agency was never part of the ship burning policy of the Nigerian Navy.

The Nigerian Navy, in 2023, had burnt some vessels caught smuggling stolen Nigerian crude oil after such vessels were arrested, with the burning of a Cameroon-bound vessel, MT TURA II, laden with 150 metric tonnes of stolen crude oil, raising questions on environmental implications.

Speaking with newsmen shortly before the end of his tenure as NIMASA DG, Jamoh said, “The issue of burning vessels, as far as NIMASA is concerned, the way you hear that a vessel was burnt, is the same way we get the information. Up to this point in time, nobody contacted us as to the policy or approval of burning vessels. But the interesting part of that policy is that in recent times, two vessels were caught with alleged stolen crude oil and those vessels were not burnt.

“Both vessels were caught between November 2023 and January 2024 and they were not burnt. So, I believe there is going to be a change in the approach of burning vessels.

“As far as NIMASA is concerned, burning vessels will have a lot of environmental issues, pollution and other consequences that will arise. I am not in a position to appraise the policy on burning vessels. But, since we had the arrest of two vessels with alleged stolen crude oil and they were not burnt, I want to believe that there has been a change in that policy.”

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