Wreck removal: NIMASA’s April 28 ultimatum dead on arrival —SOAN

President of indigenous ship owners under the aegis of the  Ship Owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN), Mr Greg Ogbeifun has faulted the recent Marine Notice issued by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to owners of abandoned vessels within the nation’s coastal waters to remove them within 28 days or face sanctions, describing it as a threat that cannot work.

Speaking in Lagos recently, Ogbeifun stated that the approach taken by NIMASA is off-handish and dismissive,  noting that as an agency which core function is to promote indigenous shipping, NIMASA ought to have first undertaken an inventory of the ships, their location and owners and meet with them to determine where the vessels can be moved to.

The SOAN President stated that the agency should explore areas of assistance to the vessel owners as they might not be financially capable to undertake the task of evacuating them.

Ogbeifun raised the issue of non-availability of reliable statistics on vessels in the nation’s maritime domain and advised NIMASA on the need to adopt a different approach.

“My personal view is that may be NIMASA would have taken a different approach. First of all, I do not have statistics of the vessels; I do not know their conditions.

“Some of the vessels are probably aground; some (of the owners) have no power to move them. So the cost of moving them could be quite elaborate and expensive and I do not know if any of the owners is in any financial position to shoulder the responsibility of moving them within the short time.

“Where will they move the vessels to? Wherever they are going to move the vessels to, they will have to incur costs. In my opinion, the NIMASA ultimatum is dead on arrival, it can’t work,” he stated.

He added that NIMASA had to agree with the owners on where to move the vessels as, according to him, it would amount to fruitless effort if the vessels were moved from one point and kept in another place.

It would be recalled that NIMASA had warned all owners of abandoned Ships/Vessels to urgently remove same from the Nigerian territorial waters on or before 28th of April 2017 or risk sanctions ranging from forfeiture or removal by the agency at the owners expense.