By Stephen Ubanna
When the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency , NIMASA, and Global West Vessels Specialist Nigeria Limited, GWVSNL, entered a 10 year-old contract under a public Private partnership ,PPP agreement, in 2013, for the supply and maintenance of patrol boats to secure the nations’ waterways during the Administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, at a cost of $103,400,000 million or N16 billion, many people knew it would end up on a sour note.
The GWVSL, Patrol gun boats ought to have been to be used in policing the Nigerian coastline from Calabar to Lagos, to Calabar. The Company was said to have purchased 25 patrol gunboats. The purchase of a Norwagianship by the Company was said to have sparked off a major disagreement between the two parties that was said to have involved the intervention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, ECC, into recover the money from the GWVSNL.
The seriousness of the matter may have encouraged the Commission was said to take over control of the 25 patrol gun boats which were said to have been anchored at the Nigerian Ports Authority Dockyard, Apapa, and the Kirikiri area of Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve centre.
Given the turnout of events between the agency and GWSL, a company which was said to have been linked to Government Eknomupolo, a militant activist in the Niger Delta region, popular, Tompolo, and some officials of NIMASA, may have informed why the antigraft agency had dragged the Company and those linked the contract including Patrick Akpobolokemi, a former Director General of the NIMASA, to Court in 2017 over alleged N34 billion fraud but lost.
The take-over of control of the 25 GWVSNL, 25 Patrol gun Boats by the EFCC, may have informed why past and present Management of NIMASA, may have abandoned the routine maintenance of the multi-billion naira boats to rot away, instead of deploying them for anti-piracy operations .
This is was the stuation of the GWVSNL, unused Patrol Boats, until the Federal government contracted an Israeli firm, HLSI Security Systems and Technologies in 2017, to service the Deep Blue Project with the supply of $195 million maritime security equipment.
Based on the terms of the Agreement between the Federal ministry of Transportation under the close watch of Rotimi Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers state, and the Israeli firm, the later had procured and delivered 17 Interception Boats, 16 Armoured Vehicles for Coastal Patrol, and Two Special Mission Vessels, currently being operated and maintained by Vice Admiral Auwal Zubairu Gambo led Nigerian Navy. Tis is in addition to Two Special Mission aircrafts for Surveillance of Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic zone, EEZ, manned by Airm Marshall, Olayinka Amao, led Nigerian Air Force, NAF and three unmanned Aerial veicles.
The fallout was that on Sunday, April 3, 2022, one of the GWVSL, Patrol Boats, named NIMASA Baragu, sunk around the Kirikiri area of Lagos, the nation. In a viral video recording of the sinking of the patrol gun boat, some Crew members of an adjoin boat , had blamed past and present NIMASA Management for abandoning the GWVSNL , patrol gunboat to waste. They noted that they had consistently reported the impending disaster to Bashir Jamoh, the incumbent Director General of the agency since January 20222, but not no step was taken to save it from sinking.
Osagie Edward, an Assistant Director, and the agency spokesperson reportedly said that that the sunk Patrol boat , though named, NIMASA Baragu, had been a subject of litigation , noting that the Crew did not report the true state of the Patrol Boat to the NIMASA Management for necessary action. He may have created the impression that if Jamoh, the agency Director General, had been duly informed about the true state of the sunk Patrol Boat, he would have ensured that the Patrol Boat was salvaged because it was bought with public money.
Osagie, the NIMASA spokesperson defense of the Management from blame over the sinking GWVSNL vessel purchased for policing of the country water ways speaks volume. This is because Crew of the adjoin vessel to the sunk Patrol Boat had said that they had repeatedly warned the NIMASA Authorities about the impending disaster but that was how far they could go.
Many believe that the Jamoh led Management may have turned a deaf ear to reports about the poor state of the GWVSNL Patrol Boat at the the Kirikiri area because alternative maritime security equipment that had been supplied by HLSI, the security firm, which had already been deployed for operation in Nigeria n waters and the Gulf of Guinea.
It is not surprising why Nigerians had described the sunk NIMASA/GWVSNL, Patrol gun boat as a bad deal. There are fears making the rounds that the other GWVSNL Patrol Boats anchored at the NPA dockyard are not safe due to lack of routine maintenance meaning that the $103,400.000 used to purchase the 25 Patrol gun boats by the Company, according to Maritime analysts has turned out to be a wasted investment. This is that could have been diverted to other productive sectors of the economy like the Educational sector.
