Boat Mishaps: ATBOWATON Calls Out Maritime Police, Say its Their Duty to Provide Security on Waterways, Not NIWA, LASWA

Inspector General to Nigeria Police Force, Kayode Egbetokun
By DAPO OLAWUNI
The Association of Tourist Boat Owners and Water Transporters Association of Nigeria (ATBOWATON) has said that it is the core responsibility of the Maritime Police to provide adequate security on the nation’s waterways, conduct stop and searches and arrest boat owners flouting the laid down safety rules and regulations.
President of ATBOWATON, Mr Ganiu Tarzan Balogun stated this while speaking at a joint press conference hosted in collaboration with the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) and Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN)
According to Tarzan, referred to as Boat Man, whenever there are Boat accidents on the waterways, it is unfair to heap all the blames only on the regulatory body; National Inland Waters Authority (NIWA) and the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA)
“It is the core duty of the marine police to provide safety and security on our waterways, so, to blame NIWA and LASWA for accidents sometimes feels wrong, I feel that it is the job of the marine police.
“The Marine Police should be well equipped, government should increase their budget and give them more money to buy fuel because, if the man that is supposed to save you, he himself is not safe, then tell me.
“But if the government is actually providing all these funding and the marine police are not utilising it, then it is another ball game” he said
Balogun also enjoined boat passengers to always obey simple safety rules before boarding a boat, adding that most boat passengers are stubborn and sometimes threaten to beat-up the operators for insisting on wearing of life jackets.
“Passengers should obey the safety rules, if the boat operators asks you not to board the boat due to lack of life jackets, please obey.
I am speaking from experience. Most of the times at my own jetty, I am always in my overall gear, so some of the passengers don’t really know who I am.
“They had wanted to slap me one day because I was preventing them from going onboard without a life jacket. I told the man that, the highest is for you to go back and collect your money because the life jacket is there but you don’t want to put it on”
He employed the media to assist the boat operators in carrying out sensitization of the public on the importance of safety regulations, adding that boat passengers are very stubborn.
“We have all it takes to make our waterways a tourist attraction, but the government needs to double their efforts in providing patrol boats for police men on the waterways, the NIWA, LASWA and especially the Marine Police” Balogun stated