MONDAY OCTOBER 7, 2019

Abiodun OBA |

As The World Converges On Abuja To Tackle Insecurity in Gulf of Guinea.

This medium in its editorial for the week, focused attention on Maritime Security on Gulf of Guinea conference.

It pointed out that the conference is a high level international conference meant to sensitive the global maritime community on the searing insecurity rampaging the Gulf of Guinea.

It argued that the world has no choice than to pay undivided attention to this conference due to the strategic importance of the Gulf of Guinea to the world economy.

Also of greater concern to the world is incalculable damage which the activities of pirates and other criminal elements in the Gulf of Guinea have wrought on the global commerce.

Also on Monday, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Tin Can port police swooped on traders and hawkers within the port premises at Tin Can Island Port complex and arrested many of them for encroachment.

The clampdown which commenced on Monday morning sent jitters down the spines of the port users.
The port police in conjunction with NPA security men, it was learnt, had sensitized the traders and others who normally hang around the three entry points leading to the ports but failed to yield positive results.

The three flash points include: First and Second gates and also the PTML entry point.

Nigerian Ports can generate 20 percent of Nigeria’s GDP

Again on Monday in Lagos, Mr. Soji Apampa, CEO, Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) Nigeria said if properly managed, Nigerian Ports can generate about twenty percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Apampa indicated this t on the sideline of the Round Table Session on Service Delivery at the Nigerian Ports that held in Lagos, yesterday.

Apampa, making reference to a survey carried out by a shipping institute in 2018 in Nigeria, quipped that if the throughput of cargo through the sea port could increase by five or ten percent, it could generate 20 percent of the country’s GDP

TUESDAY OCTOBER 8, 2019

Shipowners are major problem on female harassment onboard ships – Mcfoy

Vice President, Women in Maritime Nigeria (WIMA-Nigeria) Mrs Rollens Mcfoy has accused Nigerian ship owners of discrimination against female seafarers’ employment onboard vessels, adding that shipowners do not take issues of sexual harassment against female onboard seriously.

While addressing journalists in Lagos, McCoy who is also the owner of Seafaring Maritime Academy noted that Sexual Harassment against female can only be stopped if employers investigate such cases thoroughly.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9, 2019

On Wednesday, the President General of the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Adewale Adeyanju has issued a fourteen day ultimatum to all-district and unit officers of the union to flush out port rats from the ports.

Adeyanju gave the ultimatum while briefing the district and unit executives on developments in the union on Wednesday in Lagos.

He expressed dissatisfaction on how the name of the union was dragged in the mud with recent reports of pilfering in the ports.

Nigeria, others call for ban of stolen crude, illegal fishing In Gulf of Guinea

The member states of the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) region have asked the international community to declare resources that are illegally harvested and explored in the GoG as ‘blood diamond.’

This was contained as part of the resolutions reached at the end of a three -day Global Maritime Security Summit held in Abuja and organised by the Ministry of transportation on conjunction with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on securing the GoG.

The 3-day conference featured deliberations on 11 thematic panels where experts led discussions and proffered solutions on a wide spectrum of maritime security and development issues in the region.

The Gulf of Guinea countries are Republic of Benin, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

However, reading the communique at the end of the conference, the Director General, NIMASA, Dr Dakuku Peterside said illegal resources which included stolen oil, Illegal unreported and unregulated fishing among others should be intentionally banned as was the case with the ‘blood diamonds’.

According to the communique known as Abuja Declaration, the GoG states and the international community should put mechanism in place to ensure these resources are banned to discourage further depletion of resources in the GoG region.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 10, 2019

NPA stops security contracts at Lagos anchorage, procures patrol vessels

The Nigerian Port Authority has directed shipping companies and their vessels coming into the Lagos Anchorage area to stop patronizing private security outfits, even as the authority disclosed that it has procured some patrol vessels to enhance waterfront security at the ports.

Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman stated this on Thursday while speaking at a quarterly stakeholders meeting organised by the authority in Lagos.

Hadiza, who was represented by the Executive Director, Marine & Operations, Eng. Sekonte Davies, assured that NPA would take responsibilities of securing vessels at the ports and anchorage area.

According to her, the NPA is partnering with the Nigerian Navy with a view to strengthening waterfront security at the port.

Dangote laments pirate attacks on vessels at terminals in Lagos

Greenview Development Nigeria Limited (GDNL), operators of terminal “E” at the Lagos Ports Complex (LPC), Thursday, raised alarm over incessant attacks on ships at berth.

The terminal operators lamented that vessels at berth received attacks at intervals of two months without resistance from any marine security operatives.

Speaking at a stakeholders meeting, in commemoration of the 2019 Global Customer Service Week, with theme “The Magic of Service, held in Lagos, General Manager, Operations, GDNL, Mr. Yakubu Abdullahi said that the facility which is opposite Ogogoro Village, lacks presence of security patrol which he noted poses serious danger to the terminal.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 11, 2019

OIL: Missile strike on Iranian oil tanker shoots up prices

Oil prices surged more than two percent on Friday following the news of suspected missile strikes on Iranian oil tanker near the Saudi coast of Jeddah on Friday.

The attack was the first Iranian vessel targeted since a spate of attacks in the Gulf Washington blamed on Tehran and raised new supply concerns with tensions still high after last month’s attacks on two Saudi crude facilities.

FG launches `Operation White’ to entrench energy security

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has launched the “Operation White” project to entrench energy security and deepen the drive for transparency in the downstream operations.

Sylva, represented by the Executive Secretary of Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), Mr Ahmed Boboi, said the strategic initiative was aimed at deploying adequate measures in ensuring that all molecules of regulated petroleum products imported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were well accounted for and utilized.

NNPC finds oil in Gongola Basin

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Friday announced the discovery of hydrocarbon deposits in the Kolmani River II Well on the Upper Benue Trough, Gongola Basin, in the North-Eastern part of the country.

Recall that drilling of the Kolmani River II Well was inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari on February 2, 2019.