The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) have all jointly agreed to allow NIMASA remove all wrecks littering the nation’s waterways.
Disclosing this after the Heads of maritime agencies meeting held in Lagos on Tuesday, Director General of NIMASA, Bashir Jamoh, explained that the three agencies all have powers to remove wrecks from the nation’s waterways.
According to the NIMASA DG, “Section 32 of the NIMASA Act give the agency powers to remove wrecks from Nigerian territorial waters. Also, the NIWA Act section 9 and the NPA Act, section 7 gives the two agencies similar.powers on wreck removal.
“During our last meeting, I and the Managing Director of the NPA agreed that NIMASA should go ahead and remove wrecks from our territorial waterways. We have made a presentation to the Federal Ministry of Transportation, and I think by now, our approval should be with the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP).
“After a ‘No objection’ from the BPP, we will have to go to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to get final approval for the wreck removal.
“You can see that the three Acts establishing NIWA, NPA and NIMASA give all of us the powers to remove wrecks. But neither the Managing Director of the NPA nor the Managing Director of NIWA is contesting over who should remove wrecks. They have all allowed NIMASA to.go ahead with these efforts in making our waterways safer for navigation. To us, this is another milestone of achievement which would not have been possible if the Heads of maritime agencies have not started meeting.
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“The ministerial tenders board has already approved NIMASA request.to remove wrecks. As I am talking to you, the request is with BPP for a ‘No objection’ approval before we will now approach the FEC.
“This is unprecedented because within the last two months after we met.twice, what we cannot achieve within the last ten years, we have been able to achieve in two months.”
Recall that in recent times, many lives have been lost to boat.mishaps along the nation’s waterways, due to moving passenger boats colliding with moving floating objects along the Lagos lagoon.
joint removal of wrecks
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