Tension as Amaechi, Tompolo set to clash.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has hinted that the Act which created the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, would be scrapped following allegations of corruption in the agency.

Amaechi made this known in a meeting with the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, noting that NIMASA lacked equipments at the search and rescue unit for the monitoring of vessels’ movements as well as treatment of injured personnel.
Mr Government Tompolo, a former commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, is believed to have wielded so much influence in the agency as the major beneficiary of the Federal Government’s vessels monitoring team.
“Currently, the way NIMASA is, if you look at it very well, it was worse in the last administration. It was as if it was established just for the purpose of collecting money and nothing more. What we need to do is to ensure that NIMASA discharges its core responsibilities.
“If NIMASA failed to outsource its core responsibility, then it has no business existing. If it is just to collect money from individuals, anybody can do that. We can hire a tax collector to collect money from maritime operators on behalf of Federal Ministry of transportation.
“So it is either NIMASA sits up and carries out its own responsibility or we come to the National Assembly to repeal the Act setting it up and allow the department of marine security in the Ministry of Transportation to discharge the responsibility currently being discharged by NIMASA.” Amaechi stated.
In December 2015, Amaechi had stated that he was yet to be briefed about the multi-billion naira contract awarded to Global West Vessel Specialist Agency Limited, a company linked to Tompolo.
“I got to NIMASA and I saw a building that was looking very ugly. And I said for Christ’s sake, who are the people staying in this dirty place? And they said staff of Global West Company and they are Tompolo’s staff.
“Nobody ever mentioned that contract to me. It was in the public that I knew that Tompolo had a contract. That’s why I said give me information about all the contracts that you have awarded in NIMASA so that I know and the stage of payment.”
The former Director General of NIMASA, Patrick Akpobolokemi is said to be a close ally to former president Goodluck Jonathan and was said to have wielded strong influence in the agency.
Akpobolokemi is currently in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over some alleged shady deals, also involving Tompolo.
The sacked NIMASA boss, Akpobokemi was accused of corruption and N3.4billion theft including the allocation of N13 billion to Tompolo for the construction of a Nigerian Maritime University, NMU.
This led the Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos to order for Tompolo’s arrest, following a suit filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC after refusing to honour several invitations.
The transport minister lamented that NIMASA was established to protect Nigeria’s waterways but handed over its responsibility to ex-Niger Delta militant, Tompolo.
“The responsibility of NIMASA is to protect Nigeria’s water ways but it has out-sourced its responsibility to a private firm, Global west, which Tompolo has interest in.
“We need to first address the contract of global west with NIMASA. I was extremely disappointed NIMASA made N63 billion annually and this money is not remitted to the government coffers. At the moment, N53 billion is at Treasury Single Account, TSA of NIMASA.”