Criminal Attacks At Nigerian Ports, Jetties Peak, As Marine Police Blames Lack of Manpower

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Fresh indications have emerged that there have been am increase in the level of criminal activities and attacks on Nigerian ports and jetties, especially on barges trying to discharge cargoes at these various platforms.

The criminals new mode of operations include staging attacks on barges while taking delivery of loaded containers at the port terminals in Lagos, carting away its contents, and sometimes attack the barges while on transit on Nigerian inland waterways.

This is happening, despite the donation of five boats to the marine police recently by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to enhance effective patrol of the waterways.

The police authority have however confirmed that the five boats donated to her by NPA have not been put to use because there are no personnel to mount them.

Speaking with DAILY TREND NEWS on the sidelines of the Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN) Annual Conference in Lagos on Tuesday, its President, Mr Kelikume Edeme confirmed that there has been a lot of insecurity on the inland waterways.

“A lot of security issues are happening, as we speak today, I personally as an operator have security issues I am battling with.
What we expect is collaboration, the marine police have said that they have assets donated to them by NPA and NIMASA, but they need manpower from the police that would go into the marine unit”

“We as a body, we are going to meet with the Inspector General of Police to clamour for them to allocate more officers to come into this unit to support our operations”

“There is criminal activities when the barges are in transit, at the ports and even at the jetties. So, we cannot handle this alone, we are working with NIMASA, Police and the Navy” he said

Speaking earlier during a panel session at the event, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Adeleke who represented the Assistant Inspector General of Police John Ogbonaya Amadi said the marine unit of police are responsible to activities of the bargesand security of inland waterways.

Speaking, he said “The police has been working in synergy with NPA, recently, NPA procured five boats for the marine unit of police, though the five boats are yet to be put into action, the reason is that some of the men that have to man these boats have to undergo some training”

“We are equally looking at a situation where we would have enough manpower, because as it is, we are having shortage of manpower and at the same time, we have sent a message to all officers that want to join the marine unit so that we would have enough hands to man all our waterfront and the boats that have been procured”

Adeleke stated that already, some officers are already on training, after their training, they would be deployed on the waterways.

In terms of the attacks on the waterways, the police boss said they were not reported to the police, and if such cases are not reported it means there is no case.

“As far as the police is concerned, attack on water is regarded as a very serious offence of which nobody would want to compromise such cases but charge them to court”

“We have communities around the waterways, we have established contacts with them to ensure that they also assist by way of providing necessary information”

“Presently we don’t have enough boats and that is the truth of the matter, this was why NPA provided us these boats” he said