In a bid to ensure safe and secure shipping on the Nigerian territorial
waters, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has
warned all owners of abandoned Ships/Vessels to urgently remove same from
the Nigerian territorial waters on or before 28th of April 2017 or risk
sanctions ranging from forfeiture or removal by the Agency at the owners
expense.
The Director General of the Agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside who stated this
recently in Lagos noted that it is instructive to ensure that our waters
remain safe for navigation in order to advance our maritime interests.
He therefore warned that all abandoned ships would be declared as wrecks
and the Agency would ensure that nothing impedes safe navigation in our
waters by removing them.
In his words “*in line with our mandate on the protection of the marine
environment and safety of navigation within Nigerian waters and our powers
as the receiver of wrecks; owners of all abandoned ships, vessels and
derelicts are sternly warned to seek removal plan permits from the Agency
and ensure the removal of these wrecks and derelicts from our waters on or
before April 28th, 2017 failure of which would attract appropriate
sanction”.*
The NIMASA Helmsman also reeled out the sanctions to include removal of
such wrecks at the owners’ expense as well as forfeiture of the vessels
stating that the Agency is empowered to do so in line with the powers
vested in it by the Merchant Shipping Act 2007 and other enabling Acts and
International Maritime Organisation (IMO) instruments.
It should be noted that Nigeria is party to the Nairobi International
Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (Nairobi Convention 2007). The
Convention is a treaty of the IMO with the purpose of prompt and effective
removal of Shipwrecks located in the Parties’ territorial waters including
its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that may be hazardous to navigation or
environment. The convention gives States’ Authority to remove wrecks and in
Nigeria’s case NIMASA is the receiver of wrecks.
All abandoned Vessels littering the waterways and the shoreline of the
country are affected by this directive.
It would be recalled that the management of NIMASA has constantly expressed the
Agency’s commitment to ensuring a safer waterway for Nigerian maritime
stakeholders to conduct their business.