Get Guardian on GoogleA group, the New Nigeria Collective (NNC), has asked the leadership of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to tread with circumspection in the way it is handling its engagement with the Ocean Marine Solutions Limited (OMSL), the company providing security at the Secure Anchorage Area (SAA) of the Lagos delineation of the nation’s waters.
The group, in a statement by its National Chairman, Mr. Adeola Adewunmi, was reacting to a statement recently credited to the NPA leadership and published in a national daily where it threatened the arrest of any vessel at the SAA, adding that any ship found there would be sanctioned.
It said that the inexplicable rivalry orchestrated by the NPA was gradually becoming a threat to national security, given the sensitivity of the assignment that the OMSL is handling for the country in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy at SAA.
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According to the group, the fact that OMSL has no business with the NPA in the matter pre-supposes that the government agency has been over-reaching itself over time even after the Senate intervened and asked the NPA to steer clear of the SAA as the contract is between OMSL and the Navy and not directly with the NPA.
The NNC said it was embarrassed to learn that despite all the interventions that legitimately stifled the NPA from harassing the OMSL, it has continued to act as though it was not answerable to anyone, adding that the silent treatment being meted out to it by the OMSL can only explain why the matter has not needlessly escalated.
The group maintained that the NPA must be called to order to stop distracting the OMSL from doing its job but instead, partner them for a productive collaboration in larger interest.
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