The New Nigeria Collective (NNC) group has asked theleadership of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to tread withcircumspection in the way it is handling its engagement with the Ocean Marine Security Limited (OMSL), the companyproviding security at the Secure Anchorage Area (SAA) of theLagos delineation of the nation’s waters.
The group, in a statement by its National Chairman, Mr. AdeolaAdewunmi, was reacting to a statement recently credited to theNPA leadership and published in a national daily, where itthreatened the arrest of any vessel at the SAA, adding that anyship found there would be sanction also.NNC observed that the inexplicable rivalry orchestrated by theNPA was gradually becoming a threat to national security, given the sensitivity of the assignment that the OMSL is handling forthe country, in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy at SAA.
According to the group, the fact that OMSL has no businesswith the NPA in the matter presupposes that the governmentagency has been overreaching itself over time even after theNigerian senate intervened and asked the NPA to steer clear ofthe SAA, because the contract is between OMSL and the Navyand not directly with the NPA.It is even the more disturbing that after Senate’srecommendation, which gave OMSL a clean bill and urged it tocontinue with its otherwise patriotic assignment, the NPAleadership was still headstrong and went ahead to disrespect the Nigerian senate – an institution of note.
Isn’t it also ridiculousthat the NPA is now asking the Navy to arrest the vessels theyare protecting or do we call this a clear case of incompetence onthe part of the NPA leadership?The NNC said it was embarrassed to learn that despite all theinterventions that legitimately stifled the NPA from harassingthe OMSL, it has continued to act as though it was notanswerable to anyone, adding that the silent treatment beingmeted out to it by the OMSL can only explain why the matterhas not needlessly escalated.
“The truth of the matter is that the NPA does not even have thepower to arrest or announce the arrest of anyone. In the veryworst case scenario, if there are infractions at SAA, all that theNPA needs to do is report such to the Navy, which will in turnaddress the matter.
“But, having followed closely the operations of the OMSL at theSAA, it does not take much to see how the company has beenproviding the much needed logistics for the navy to function andbe on top of their assignment. But this is the kind of support thatthe NPA has refused to give, even when it was approached.
“We are inclined to believe, therefore, that there are somepersons within the NPA, who for reasons best known to themalone, want the OMSL messed up and as a result, beenconcocting all sorts of lies and manipulation to justify theirpremeditated plans,” he said.
The group maintained that the NPA must be immediately calledto order to stop distracting the OMSL from doing the job, forwhich it has been globally acknowledged as outstanding insecuring the nation’s waterways and instead, partner them for aproductive collaboration in larger interest.
