Reps slam NIMASA over failure to recover $300m debts

A panel of the House of Representatives has taken a swipe at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), for failing to recover over $300 million collected on its behalf by some shipping services providing companies since 2004. The House Committee on Maritime Safety and Education, which did not hide its feelings at a public hearing, yesterday, threatened to involve the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with a view to bringing anybody culpable in the handling of the funds to justice. The companies were receiving agents for international shipping lines, and were expected to remit three percent of all such fees charged on cargoes to NIMASA, but failed to make the needed remittances. Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Umaru Bago, who threatened to issue arrest warrant against any CEO of the affected companies if they fail to honour the panel’s invitation, said it was failure of duty on the part of NIMASA to allow the funds in the hands of the companies, spanning over years while the federal government goes borrowing to fund its projects and programmes. “We have a deficit budget and we need to fund it, but how can we do that if people are irresponsible”, he said as he disclosed that information at the disposal of the committee has shown that some of the companies had the penchant of declaring themselves bankrupt, and springing up doing same businesses in new names. He said the committee will go as far as reaching out to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to unravel the ownerships of the companies, noting that “it is criminal for companies to collect certain values of money, and rather than remitting same will shut down by declaring themselves bankrupt, without any such declaration from a competent court. Some of the invited companies which representatives appeared before the panel yesterday, though owned up to owing certain amounts of money, but quoted figures less than what were before the committee, and these include GAC Shipping Nigeria Limited, Daddo Maritime Services Ltd, Bluesea Maritime Services Ltd, Maesk Nigeria Ltd, Hull Blyth and Inchcape Shipping Services Ltd. The committee has however directed the companies to between now and Tuesday next week, furnish it with their up to date reconciled balances with NIMASA, evidences of all payments made to NIMASA within the period under review, their bank statement to cover payments made, and other evidences that will assist the panel in its investigation. Buhari bags polio champion award By Abdullahi M. Gulloma President Muhammadu Buhari has been conferred with the prestigious Polio Champion award in recognition of his uncommon commitment and leadership in the polio eradication programme in Nigeria. Rotary International President, Mr Barry Rassin, who is on a four-day official visit to Nigeria, presented the award to the President yesterday at the State House in Abuja. The Polio Champion award was instituted by Rotary International in 1995 to recognise and appreciate Heads of Governments and organisations that have play a key role in polio eradication around the world. The last recipient of the award was Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada. Other past recipients include Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon. Receiving the award, the Nigerian leader, while thanking Rotary International for the honour, lauded their commitment to humanitarian work across the globe. ‘‘Rotary International is well known to my generation. Your work is really humanitarian; no amount of materialism can pay you for what you have been doing and we thank you very much. ‘‘I am pleased with the efforts of Rotary International, you are champions of the weak, and I pray that God will abundantly pay you for your humanitarian services. I am also pleased that I have a competent Health Minister, who supervises the work,” he said. In his remarks, Mr Barry Rassin, while commending the President for providing significant leadership in the efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria, advocated for increased political and financial commitments at all levels for routine immunization and primary health care strengthening. He also commended the President for his commitment to Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) by expanding the presidential task force on polio to include state governors shortly after he took office in 2015. ‘‘You are an inspiration to your country’’, the Rotary president, who was accompanied by his wife, Esther, and other senior Rotarians in Nigeria, told the President. He said Rotary has contributed $1.7 billion to the global effort to eradicate polio, of which $270m was expended in Nigeria. ‘‘We have come a long way from 1985 when polio was crippling 350,000 children annually in 125 countries of the world to 27 cases in two countries. But even one child paralysed by polio is one child too many. We need to end polio now,’’ Rassin said, adding that Nigeria has not recorded any case of polio in the last 27 months, nine months away from ‘‘possible certification of eradication.’’. Bribery video: Ganduje sues Daily Nigerian publisher Jafar, demands N3bn By Bashir Mohammed Kano state governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has filed a N3 billion suit against an online newspaper publisher Ja’afar Ja’afar. Ganduje, in a statement of claim, said the publication and circulation of the doctored video clips besmirched his integrity and personality in the eye of the public. The governor is therefore seeking a perpetual order restraining the defendant, his agents and all persons from sharing what he termed “malicious and doctored video clips” targeted at denting his image and political career. According to the claim, the plaintiff prayed the court to compel Ja’afar Ja’afar to write a public apology through his online and other mass media platforms with global accessibility and wider outreach to correct the erroneous impression against him.