NPA Workers Raise Fresh Alarm Over Sale of Dockyard To NIPCO

Managing Director, NPA; Mallam Habeeb Abdullahi.        

About a year after it called government's attention to the alleged attempts by oil giant; NIPCO Plc to acquire the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Dockyard in Apapa Lagos, NPA workers under the aegis of Senior Staff Association of Communication, Transportation and Corporation (SSACTAC) have again raised alarm that NIPCO is making fresh attempts to acquire the facility.

President of the SSACTAC Maritime, Comrade Umar Omeiza Jimoh in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in a recent interview in Lagos confirmed that NIPCO is trying to acquire the space in order to construct more tank farms.

Comrade Umar lamented that at presently, the NPA does not have an in-house training plant like the dockyard for pilots and in-house mariners, according to him, most of the professionals in the maritime industry today grew through the in-house plant at the dockyard.

He disagreed with insinuations that the dockyard was moribund, even as he called on NPA to refurbish it for the training of its workers.

Speaking further, Umar said: "The issue in NIPCO is coming back again, they want to take our dockyard, but they cannot, it is meant for us for implant training, even if the authority is not looking at it now, people that are coming in the future will look at it and make best use of it"

"NIPCO is asking for it for further erection of tank farms, but no sound helmsman in maritime operations will allow that to happen. We don't have a dockyard to train and retrain staff, we don't have where pilots can receive training and refresher courses".

Comrade Umar alleged that the issue is re-occurring, because the "big guys" are interested in the land. He however advised that national interest and not individual interest should be the priority.

He called on all government agencies including the NPA, NIMASA, Shippers Council and the Nigerian Customs Service to rise up to the occasion and oppose erection of tank farms within port areas.

"The dockyard is not dead, but you want to say that a dog he is mad just to hang him, we need the place because NPA has no training school today for pilots and in-house mariners, those who can say they are gurus in the maritime industry today grew through in-house plant, there is no Nigerian university where you will go and learn that, we have gone through the process, you have to learn it on the job"

"It is absolutely not correct to allow citing of tank farms in multiples of places around, it does not give us any economic benefit, rather, it provides succor for the individuals that own it" he noted.
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