By Stephen Ubanna
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, under the close watch of Dayo Mobereola, which had been on a warpath with Abade –Toru Mangal, a coastal Community in Delta state, over the years, appears to have adopted Alternative Disputes Resolution, ADR, approach to settle their differences without the mediation of the House Public Petitions Committee.
The Abade-Toru Mangal community Development Initiative, Leadership were said to have sent a petition against NIMASA, to Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker, House of Representatives on May 24, 2024, over alleged neglect of its community in siting educational and skills acquisition centres in the area.
Titled , ‘’an urgent petition requesting for the implementation of the long overdue Corporate Social Responsibilities, CSR, for the Niger Delta Coastal Communities’’ from the Mobereola led NIMASA , via the Global Maritime Security Conference , GMSC, Memorandum of Demands was said to have to been transferred to the Committee on Public petitions by the House Speaker to handle.
The Abade-Toru Mangal Development Initiative Leadership which had accused the Maritime Regulatory agency of failing to establish educational and skills acquisition centres in its Community and five other coastal areas in Delta, Bayelsa, home state of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Rivers, Akwa Ibom , home state of Godswilll Akpabio, current Senate President and Cross river , had insisted that the agency must see it as part of its CSR, to establish such facilities in these Niger Delta states coastal communities .
The Leadership of the Abade Toru Mangal Development Initiative was optimistic that if NIMASA, could establish the muliti-million naira facilities facilities in Zaria, home state of former President Muhammadu Buhari, and Kaduna,Bshir Jamoh, the then Maritime Regulatory, Director General, home state, noting that within three months between June , 2024 S and September 2024, the building of the mega educational and skills acquision centres in the core operational areas the Niger Delta states of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross river states owned Universities would be completed and put to use immediately.
The Leadership of the Abade-Toru Mangal Development Initiative, Leadership were said to have further stated in their petition to the House Speaker, that by June , 2024, when the projects might have been completed and put to use, a list of the beneficiaries of the five proposed educational and skills acquisition centres in the five Niger Delta states should be forwarded to the agency through the House Committee on Public Petitions.
This may have Informed why the Delta state Community , Development Initiative LLeadership , had challenged NIMASA, that by October 2024, it should provide at least, N1 million as venture capital for each of the pioneer graduates of the five skills acquision centres that would be established in the five South-south states, described as core operational areas.
he Value News online Magazine learnt that when the case was called up on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, for hearing at the House Committee level, the members were shocked that the two parties had agreed on Tuesday ,July 23, 2024, to adopt an alternative dispute Resolution approach in the matter that was before the House Committee on Public Petitions.
Until the House Committee which was said to have started investigating the Abade- Toru Mangal Community Petitions against NIMASA, it was said to have threatened to arrest the NIMASA, helmsman, if he fails to appear before it on July 17, 2024.
It was gathered that the agency Management may have seen the seriousness of the Committee threat to arrest the Director General if he fails to appear before it that they were said to have made efforts to reach out to the Community Development Initiatives Leadership to seek peaceful settlement of their grievances through Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR.
The agency Management may have had their way as the coastal Community could no longer pursue the case in the House Public Petitions Committee. Michael Etaba, Chairman of the House Committee on Public Petitions, who could not hide his feelings had said that during the occasion, set for hearing of the Abade-Toru Mangal, Development Initiative, petitions , that the members could not continue with the it. This is because Isiechi Osamgbi, the agency Director, Administration and Human Resources, was said to have reached out to them seeking to resolve their grievances with the Delta state coastal Commmunity through ADR.
The House Committee Chairman may have seen it as a big relief to members, noting that’’the move is well appreciate and encouraged’’. He was said to have also said that the NIMASA team had come before the Committee members sitting, stating that they had agreed that the matter between the agency and Delta state coastal Community be settled through ADR, for ‘’proper implementation’’.
Etaba, the House Committee Chairman on Public Petitions may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians when he declared that ’’ if there is anything the Committee had supported most in the recent time is resolving disputes between warring parties , ‘’it is ADR’’.
He was said to said to have sounded it loud and clear that if any aggrieved coastal Community involved in any dispute with NIMASA or any other Government agency, including the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and the Nigerian Inland Water Ways Authority, NIWA and agrees to resolve such disputes through ADR, ‘’the Committee will go for it’’.
An elated Etaba, who was said to have expressed his delight over the harmonious agreement between NIMASA and the Delta state coastal Community, insisting that ‘’there is nothing like harmony’’.
George Wilcox Noah, who was aid to have championed the writing of the petition against NIMASA, to the Speaker of the House Representatives against NIMASA, to draw the agency’s attention to its plight, had said that he was satisfied with ‘’the peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two parties’’ , stating that the harmonious agreement goes to show that the Community is not in any way at loggerheads with NIMASA, an agency, under the newly established Federal ministry of marine and blue economy , which has Adegboyega Oyetola, a former governor of Osun state as the minister.
He was said to have told those that cares to listen that the peaceful resolution of the conflict of interest between the two parties was facilitated by the plea from NIMASA, officials, which further shows that ‘’the Delta state Community are not antagonizing the NIMASA’’.
Edward Osagie, an Assistant Director and NIMASA, spokesperson, had said that the Abade –Toru Mangal Community Leader , who would want to enjoy a harmonious relationship with NIMASA, had assured that in going forward ‘’ there should be peaceful co-existence between the residents of the Community and the maritime regulatory agency’’ , stating that ‘’ piracy sea robbery and other violent sea crimes that the affects both the Niger Delta region and the Gulf of Guinea would be mitigated’’ with the peaceful resolution of the conflict between the the agency and the Delta state coastal community.
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