Navy spuns insecurity as reason  Eastern Ports are underutilised. 

The Nigerian Navy has faulted claims by Nigerian shippers, importers, shipowners and freight forwarders that insecurity was major reason why they fail to route their cargoes through eastern ports of Nigeria.

Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) of Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Oladele Daji argued that the Navy has a heavy presence of its boats and officers around Port Harcourt Port, Bonny, Warri and Calabar Ports.

Contrary to allegations that the Navy charge special fees from ship owners and shipping companies before deploying its facilities to escort ships our of Nigerian ports, Daji debunked such insinuations.

According to him, “Nigerians not using the Eastern Ports is not because of lack of security, take the Port Harcourt port for instance, we have 40% of our fleet in the Nigerian Navy there”

“In Bonny, we have about six ships, am not even counting the small boats on silent operations, they have already been there since 2015, doing a kind of escort for vessels once you request for it, and the Nigerian Navy sees this as our statutory responsibility, so we do not charge for it”

“Thirdly, at Warri Port, we have the NNS Delta, together with civil defense boats about eight of them, all they need to do is ask for it and they would be escorted from into the channel”

“At Calabar Port, we also have the NNS Victory taking care of that area”

“Perhaps, there are other issues that need to be looked into as to why Shippers are not using these ports optimally” Daji stated

He informed that the Nigerian Navy has a robust maritime domain awareness system comprising of the FALCON EYE and the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability System which it uses to monitor and track vessels up to and beyond our exclusive economic zone beyond 200 nautical miles.

According to him, the Navy is a disciplined outfit that would not condone any act of illegality, hence, he said the service recently dismissed some of its officers alleged to have been involved in extortion of truck drivers in Apapa, Lagos

Recall that the Naval high command had recently launched an investigation into some of its officers whom were found culpable in the bribe taking scandal and some of them were found to have enriched themselves from extorting truck drivers.

Speaking, the Naval Boas said “Like they say, in every twelve there is always a Judas, the conditions were ripe, and the bad eggs took advantage of it, however, we did not just stop there, we dismissed those that found in the act, those that were on suspicion were punished, some were reduced in ranks just as a way of disciplining them to show that the Nigerian Navy has zero tolerance for such indiscipline”

“We urge other agencies to do the same because the allegations were not only limited to the Nigerian Navy, other agencies were involved and I believe they should do the same because if there is no deterrent, the culture of impunity will continue”

“I want to assure you that the Western Naval Command is disciplined, and anyone that is found wanting would be disciplined because we do not condone such behaviors”

On the issue of traffic management, Daji lamented that as an operational commander, it is abnormal for him to have deployed one-third of his personnel to a task that ordinarily in some climates it shouldn’t be doing.

He said “The headquarters have directed that we cannot standby being idle and leave heavy weights on the bridges, because in the long run, if the bridges collapse, we would not even have vehicular access into the base and the cost of reconstruction would be higher”