Customs To Sack 66 Officers For Drug Addiction—CG

Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (retd), yesterday said 66 officers found to be hooked on hard drugs would be eased out.
Ali disclosed this while addressing officers and men of the Plateau/Benue Area Command of the service in Jos.

Transport Minister; Amaechi ‎Promises To Empower Shippers’ Council As Port Economic Regulator

Minister of Transport; Mr Rotimi Amaechi being received  on arrival for an official visit to the corporate head office of the Nigerian Shippers Council by the Executive Secretary; Mr Hassan Bello on Monday

‎...As Executive Secretary;  Bello Begs For  Exclusion From TSA    
Minister of Transport; Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has assured that his office will pay more attention to ensuring that the Nigeria Shippers Council is empowered to regulate‎ all the stakeholders in the maritime sector efficiently.
Amaechi gave this assurance when he visited the agency on Monday. He was full of commendations for the Council, saying that he will learn more from the Shippers Council on how to push the industry forward.
At an interactive session with the staff of the council, he charged them to support the government to achieve its fight against corruption and engender a more stable economy for all Nigerians to participate in.

Amaechi Suspends Work On NIMASA University‎; Okerenkoko

From left: Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika; Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi and Acting Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Haruna Baba Jauro, during the facility visit by the Ministerial delegation to NIMASA Resource Centre at Kirikiri, Lagos… on Monday
 

Minister of Transport; Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has ordered that further construction works at‎ the Nigerian Maritime University in Okerenkoko in Delta State should be suspended for now.
The maritime university and the shipyard project are being spearheaded by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) under the former Director General; Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi.
Amaechi stated this when he held a meeting with management staff of NIMASA as part of his familiarization tour of Lagos ports and maritime agencies on Monday.

Amaechi Lampoons NIMASA, Demands Financial, Staff Audit

R-L Managing Director ,Nigerian Ports Authority ,Habib Abdullahi leading the Hon. Minister of Transportation Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amechi to inspect facilities at the NPA during the ministers' maiden working visit to Lagos.

•Demands to know how NIMASA spends N100b annual budget

The Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has expressed strong dissatisfaction at the Nigerian‎ Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) over the infrastructural decay at the agency's Search and Rescue Coordinating Centre located at Kirikiri, Lagos.
A visibly angry Amaechi equally ordered the Acting Director General of NIMASA‎, Mr. Haruna Baba Jauro to furnish his office with up-to -date financial records and all contracts signed and executed by NIMASA since 2007.

Anxiety As NPA Sets To Sack 5000 Dockworkers This Week

 • Stevedoring Contractors In Last Minute Lobby To Reverse Decision
• Tally Clerks, Onboard Security Yet To Receive Payment

There appears to be no going back on the decision by the Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) to stop further payments to about 5000 stevedores who are currently engaged in five of the nation’s seaports.
The ports are: Lagos port, Tin Can Island port, Onne port, Rivers port and Calabar port. The affected stevedores are all members of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN).
Shipping Position Daily confirmed last week that, stevedoring companies have stepped up their lobby

EFCC Invites Tompolo Over N13b NIMASA Land Scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission yesterday invited former Niger Delta warlord, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, over a N13 billion land scam involving the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.

MAN Oron Rector; Joshua Okpo, ANLCA Chieftain; Chuks Kanikwu Dead

Tragedy struck twice in the Nigerian maritime industry on Tuesday as two prominent stakeholders died.
The first to be acknowledged was that of Rector of Maritime Academy ‎of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State; Mr Joshua Okpo.
He reportedly died in his hotel room in Abuja while preparing for a scheduled appointment.
While the news of Okpo’s demise filtered-in late on Tuesday, that of a frontline clearing agent and member of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Mr. Chuks Kanikwu was broken early yesterday.

Nigerian Pirates Release Five Polish C

Five crew members kidnapped from a Polish-owned cargo last month off the coast of Nigeria are heading home, according to Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo.
The captain and four crew members of the Cyprus-flagged MV Szafir were kidnapped by pirates at about 11 p.m. on November 26th. According to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, pirates in two

MAN Oron Rector; Joshua Okpo Is Dead

Joseph Okpo

The embattled Rector of the Maritime Academy ‎of Nigeria (MAN) in Oron Akwa Ibom State is dead. Okpo died in Abuja on Monday in his hotel room in Abuja.
Before his death on Tuesday around 2pm, the late MAN Oron Rector was reported to be under investigation by the Minister for alleged high scale fraud he committed at the academy.

NPA Advocates Diversion Of Petroleum Vessels Out Of Lagos

Managing Director ‎of NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi

The Nigerian Ports Authority has called on the Federal Government to consider ensuring that petroleum cargoes coming into Lagos State are diverted to other ports across the country because the State is already congested.
Managing Director ‎of NPA, Mallam Habib Abdullahi made this call in Lagos on Monday while addressing members of Senate Committee on Marine Transport led by its Chairman, Senator Sanni Yerima during a stakeholders meeting in Lagos.

N1.5billion Stalling Completion Of Tin Can Holding Bay ----Senate Committee

L-R: Senator Isiaka Adeleke former Governor of Osun State, General Manager Western Ports of NPA, Chief Michael Ajayi, Chairman Senate Committee on Works, Senator Kabiru Gaya and Chairman Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Ahmed Sanni Yerima during an on-the-spot assessment of the‎ Tin Can port holding bay by the marine committee yesterday

Four years after the project was slated to be delivered but it was not, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Marine Transport;  Senator Sanni Yerima has revealed that the contract for the construction of the Second Liverpool Bridge and the 400-capacity truck bay was being delayed because of N1.5billion government  being owed the contractor.
‎The contract was awarded by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works to Messrs Borni Prono Construction Company in 2009 at the cost of N8.6 billion, to ease the traffic congestion around the Tin Can Port.

CMA CGM Delmas Boss Throws Weight Behind CTN, Says It Will Help Nigeria

Head of Complaint Unit of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Mr. Fadipe Moses (3rd from right) and Managing Director, CMA CGM Apapa, Mr. Tadd Rives flanked by other officials of the Council and CMA CGM when the Shippers Council team visited the Shipping company in Lagos last week.

…As Shippers’ Council sets to launch standard operating procedures at portThe rank of stakeholders who have thrown their weights behind the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) has swollen.  It has been endorsed by the chief executive officer of CMA CGM Apapa Office, Mr. Todd Rives.
Endorsing the ICNT last week, Mr Rives categorically stated that the CTN, currently being implemented by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council will help Nigeria by ensuring that there is a single cargo traffic data.

EFCC Arraigns Akpobolokemi, Ex-NIMASA DG And Nine Others For Alleged N1.153 Billion Scam

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission today December 3, 2015 arraigned a former Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency Patrick Ziadeke Akpobolokemi; and seven other staff of the agency including Captain Eziekiel Agaba,  Executive Director, and their two companies before  Justice Salihu Sa'idu of the Federal High Court Lagos on a 30- count charge bordering on conspiracy, fraudulent conversion of funds and Money Laundering.

Others are Ekene Nwakuche, Felix Bob-Nabena, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, Governor Amechee Juan, Ugo Frederick, Timi Alari, Alkenzo Limited and Penniel Engineering Services Limited

Customs Gives Dec.31 Deadline For Removal Of Abandoned PHCN’s Equipment From Ikorodu Terminal

Successor companies that took over assets and liabilities of the defunct PHCN must remove their abandoned imported electricity equipment from Ikorodu Lighter Terminal before end of this year or forfeit them to the Federal Government.
Assistant Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in charge of Zone A, Mr Eporwei Edike gave the ultimatum on Wednesday while on a visit to the terminal at Ikorodu, which the Nigeria Customs Service uses as its warehouse for overtime cargoes.

Shippers Advocate Scrapping Of SONCAP Certificate

The Shippers’ Association of Lagos State (SALS) has called on the Federal Government to scrap the Standards Organization of Nigeria Conformity Assessment Programme, also known as SONCAP, saying that it not relevant for the assessment of goods imported into the country.

The SONCAP is a product conformity scheme whose objective is to help ensure that products exported to Nigeria meet minimum standard. This will help ensure that Nigerian consumers are not exposed to potentially unsafe and sub-standard goods.

SON Destroys N10bn Worth Of Substandard Goods

Deputy President of NAGAFF; Mr. Oluwole Adeyemi presenting the  NAGAFF Fellow Certificate to the Director General, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON); Dr. Joseph Odumodu, while Founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam (L) looks on during DG’s  visit to NAGAFF village yesterday

Director General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON); Dr. Joseph Odumodu said that the agency destroyed goods worth N10 billion in the last four years, even as he urged freight forwarding associations to collaborate with the agency  to rid the country of sub-standard and fake goods.

Odumodu disclosed this yesterday during his official visit to the Headquarters of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) in Lagos.
He said that the items were destroyed from 2011 to date.