Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has moved to strengthen collaborations with the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) for an effective enforcement compliance regime around port locations in the country.
Speaking while visiting the Inspector General of Police on Tuesday in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of NSC, Dr. Pius Akutah emphasized the role of security Agencies in efficient port operations.
He stated that “this partnership had been existing over the years, in 2015, Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) was appointed the port economic regulatory Agency for the port sector.
” The Agency is set up with the mandate to monitor and report standards in the port sector, obtain data from users and providers of services in the sector, issue regulatory guidelines, and enforce compliance through sanctions, suspension and deregisteration of service providers in the sector.
“This is a role that we can not effectively carry out alone. We have an enforcement unit with the Regulatory Services Department but in terms of enforcement or compliance, to regulate provisions requires coercive actions that only the force of law and order can back them up”.
He commended the Nigerian Police Force for existing enforcement across the terminals and the operations and implementation of the Nigerian Port process manual.
Akutah explained that with the advent of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, more responsibilities have emerged and it is proper that “we intensify our enforcement compliance.
“We want to request the IGP to post Police officers to support monitoring and enforcement team across the port locations in Lagos, Warri, Onne, Pkrt Harcourt and Calabar”.
The ES noted that the posting will support the revived tax teams across the location.
While welcoming the Executive Secretary, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Adeolu Egbetoku said the Force will continue to support the Council for the growth of the maritime sector.
He acknowledged that enforcement of compliance was necessary for the development of the Blue Economy.
ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then