Author: Saint Augustine

Adegboyega Olopoenia is the National President of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners. In this interview with newsmen in Lagos, he bares his mind on the recent handover of the outgone Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi to Barr. Callistus Obi as the Acting Director-General of the agency, the need to appoint a professional to head all maritime agencies and many more. Our correspondent was at the briefing and filed in this report. Excerpt; What is your view on the recent appointment of a new Acting Director-General for the Nigerian Maritime Administration…

The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has called on the Federal government to as a matter of urgency audit the account of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) so as to ascertain the true position of the Council’s finance. Speaking at a news briefing in Lagos yesterday, the National Publicity Secretary (NPS) of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto argued that since the Governing Board of the Council was not in place, there was the need to ascertain who had been approving all the funds that the Registrar and his team had been spending. Using…

A Lagos-based DNA expert, Dr. Oyinwola Oni, has stated that 40% of men do not know that they are not the biological fathers of their first child. He said this while recounting a rather personal event in his life where a former girlfriend attempted to force a set of twins on him. Speaking with City People, he said: “How I got into doing DNA is an interesting story which all man should learn from. I lost my wife about 6 years ago. About that time there was a lady I have known for long in Nigeria but who now lives…

After weeks of intensive debate within the freight forwarding industry over whether or not the practitioners’ Operating Fee (POF) should be collected, the Federal Ministry of Transport has finally given approval for the immediate commencement of the collection of the fees all the nation’s seaports, border stations and airports. It will be recalled that at the first meeting between the Federal Ministry of Transport and the freight forwarders at Abuja in June this year over whether or not the fees should be collected, the Ministry asked to be given time to study the contending issues over the collection of the…

The Chairman, Nigerian Ports Consultative Council (NPCC), Otunba Kunle Folarin has said that the Council was not working in conflict with anybody or group in the Nigerian Maritime Industry. Folarin who made this known while fielding questions from journalists on the sideline of a one day roundtable on the maritime sector and the port industry with the theme: Setting Maritime Agenda for the Attainment of 20:20 20 Vision” in Lagos yesterday stated that the Council had kicked off a series of roundtables that would come up with yesterday’s event. According to him,” Agbakoba’s initiative is quite different from ours. Agbakoba’s…

The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has faulted the call by the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) on the Management of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to revoke all licenses issued by the service describing the reasons deposed by CAFFA for calling for such revocation as misleading. It will be recalled that the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) had in a letter it addressed to Comptroller-General of Customs recommended the immediate revocation of all licenses issued by the Nigeria Customs Service so as to protect government revenue. NAGAFF also called on the…

The Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu has criticized the move by President Muhammadu Buhari to recover all the looted funds by the immediate past administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan saying that it should not be the priority of the president at the moment. Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos, Chukwu however stated that if President Buhari has evidence that the said public officials had looted public funds, he had a legal mandate to recover those funds. “But I believe that that should not take too much of the president’s attention because there…

The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tincan Island Chapter has cried out to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other statutory regulatory government agencies responsible for regulating the activities of the terminal operators at the nation’s seaports to save them from the excesses of the management of the Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) in Lagos. The Vice Chairman of the chapter, Barr. Mrs. Ada Akpunonu who made this call in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos stated that TICT management had taken over virtually all the foreign services from all the shipping…

…Says it is a welcomed development The Nigerian Indigenous Ship owners Association (NISA) has described as a step in the right direction the ban of 133 tankers by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from plying the Nigerian waters. The NNPC had last week acting on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari said that the 133 tankers had been prohibited from plying the Nigerian waters with immediate effect citing no reason for the decision. Speaking in an interview with newsmen in Lagos on Tuesday, the National Publicity Secretary of NISA, Mr. Emmanuel Ilori observed that for foreigners to be involved…

Following the removal of the former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi from office by president Muhammadu Buhari last week, the National Publicity Secretary of the Nigeria Indigenous Ship owners Association (NISA), Mr. Emmanuel Ilori has said that the former DG would be remembered for raising awareness of the agency within and outside the maritime industry. Ilori who made this position known in Lagos on Tuesday in a chat with newsmen noted that prior to his appointment as the NIMASA helmsman, there was little or nothing known about NIMASA as far as…