From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Federal Government through the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has revealed that it has acquired 20 patrol boats to boost its monitoring and enforcement of protocols in Nigeria’s inland waterways to tackle the menace of boat mishaps in the country.
NIWA Managing Director George Moghalu disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday while briefing reporters shortly after the commissioning of the Authority’s new area office by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
Moghalu, expressing concern over the menace of boat mishaps which has claimed many lives in recent times, said NIWA was ‘doing quite a lot’ to address the problem.
‘We are concerned about it. We are enforcing the protocols. Last week, we were in Lagos to inaugurate a taskforce whose responsibility is to ensure that protocols are fully observed. And to facilitate this, we also gave out three patrol boats to the Lagos office,’ he stated.
‘We have acquired about 20 of them and we are distributing them to various area offices. We have also acquired some ambulances and we are distributing them to area offices. We have also upped the ante with regards to sensitisation because, like you rightly observed, some of our people willingly go and overload their vessels.
‘We have also embarked on electronic registration of boats. We have opened up a channel to train boat operators and their captains to recertify them. We are recertifying the vessels because some of these vessels are not supposed to be on water. With our police, we are enforcing those protocols. It is either it is properly done or not done at all.’
Moghalu, expressing worry over the recent collapsed jetty in Port Harcourt, however, clarified that the affected jetty does not belong to NIWA.
He said when the incident happened, its area office in Port Harcourt moved to the scene and offered the needed support.
He said findings indicate the jetty collapsed due to pressure, adding that ‘the jetty was quite an old jetty.’
Moghalu told newsmen that his vision was to make inland water transportation to be a transport of choice for goods and services in the country by the time he leaves office.
Earlier, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, after commissioning the area office, commended the MD for the feat and urged him to do more.