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Steve Agbota
The Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside , has disclosed that the multi-billion Naira Floating Dock facility in 2018 berthed at Naval dockyard would soon commence operations.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos, Peterside said when the Floating Dockyard was acquired, it was initially designed to berth Okerenkoko in Delta State but berthed in Lagos due to reports and surveys the Agency received.
According to him, series of reports and surveys that emanated after the Floating Dock was acquired debarred the facility from being taken to Delta State where it was expected to begin operations.
He added: “When the Floating Dock was acquired, there were a lot of surveys and report advising against the berthing of the Floating Dock in Delta State. Those reports and surveys are still available till date. So, NIMASA was forced to review all those surveys and reports and make the best decision in the interest of the nation and the shipping community concerning the Floating Dock.
“One of the reports came from the firm that built the Floating Dock. That is why the Floating Dock is still in the Naval Dockyard in Lagos. We arrived at this based on all the reports and surveys we received on the Floating Dock. We are simply following due process on the operating berthing space. What we have now in Lagos is a storage berthing space. Very soon, we will commence operations at the operating location of the Floating Dock.”
Meanwhile, Executive Director, Marine and Operations of NIMASA, Rotimi Fashaki, said the insecurity in the Niger Delta region made it difficult for NIMASA to berth the Floating Dock at Okerenkoko as originally designed.
He explained: “Initially when the Floating Dock was acquired, the design was for it to berth in Delta State. But even at that time, there were a lot of reports advising to the contrary. These reports are still there till date.”
“When we got here, we were forced to review all these reports and take a decision that we think would serve all interest in the shipping community. The floating dock was not conceptualized by the Peterside administration, we only inherited it just like the Buhari administration inherits projects and goes ahead to actualize it.”
He said when the dock landed in Nigeria, there were various state governments that requested for it and all these are on record.
He said: “When it came in, we thought of many ideas. First is to get an operator to operate it, but this is a government asset and not something you can just give to an operator, NIMASA is a regulator and not an operator. So giving the dock to an operator also needs to go through the bureaucracy of government.”
