Concerned over the wrecked ships and abandoned vessels littering Nigeria’s waters, master mariners have supported the call for taking a legal action against owners of the wrecks.

A member of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Kayode Farinto, who represented the President of ANLCA, Olayiwola Shittu, raised the issue in Lagos during the annual general meeting of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners.

He suggested that owners of the wrecks should be sued.

The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, had remarked earlier that wrecks were abandoned ships and a major cause of accidents on the waterways.

He threatened owners of abandoned vessels that if they did not remove them, the vessels would be declared as wrecks.

Peterside said it was instructive to ensure that the waters remained safe for navigation in order to advance maritime interests.

He said, “In line with our mandate on the protection of the marine environment and safety of navigation within Nigerian waters and our powers as the receiver of wrecks, owners of all abandoned ships, vessels and derelicts are sternly warned to seek removal plan permits from the agency and ensure the removal of these wrecks and derelicts from our waters, failure of which will attract appropriate sanction.”

It estimated that Over 100 rusty shipwrecks line Nigeria’ s 853km shore.

While presenting a paper titled, ‘International Pilotage Services’ during the association of master mariners’ AGM, a former sailor, Iheanacho Ebubeogu, said that it would make economic sense if  vessels that were still afloat but no longer in use were towed  back to their destinations before they sank and became wrecks.

He noted that some of the vessels came with bunkers and if they sank would lead to pollution.

According to him, although the law permits NIMASA to remove wrecks if the owners have not done so after one year, the cost of removing the wrecks is very high, adding that it costs as much as $1.8m to remove wrecks from the ocean.

He said, “What the law says is that if after one year the owner has not removed it, the appropriate authority that considers the wreck a nuisance can remove it and when that is done, the authority shall recover its money from the wreck and pay the balance into government’s account.

“But the unfortunate thing is that all the wrecks we have removed are worth less than the money we have spent in their removal and that is why it is advisable for these wrecks to be towed away from Nigeria when they are derelicts, abandoned vessels, since they still have their buoyancy then. With a good tugboat sailing for 28 days, you can tow more than 16 ships to Bangladesh.

“The cost of paying for that towing is less than one tenth of the cost of removing one wreck from the water. None of the wrecks removed from Nigerian waters is less than $1.8m.”

Ebubeogu also advised that an appraisal should be done and depreciation policies should be carried out since most of the ships bought were second-hand and they had a lifespan, adding that maintenance culture was still lacking in the country.

“We want to use this forum to appeal that it is better to take ships away when they are just derelicts and abandoned, not when they sink as wrecks because it costs a lot of money to remove them. Environmentally, if the ships sink with bunkers in them, they become a source of continued pollution,” he stated.

The association also used the platform to elect new members of its executive committee.  Tajudeen  Alao was elected president; Onyin Iwebuke emerged as the senior vice president while Francis Oyewole was elected general secretary.

Others are Olajide Olugunwa, vice president,  Adeniyi Adedokun, assistant general secretary; Olabode Oloko, financial secretary; and Chima Ogbonnaya, treasurer.

In his speech, Alao, who expressed dismay at the lack of practical sea time training for about 6,000 cadets trained under the NIMASA National Seafarers Development Programme, however assured members of the association that there were a lot of opportunities for  skilled and experienced practitioners.

He said, with the establishment of the Lekki Deep Seaport, the future of maritime trade had shifted from Apapa to Ibeju Lekki and practitioners would find a lot of opportunities in this and other areas outside the country.