Nigerians React As NIMASA DG Faces Arrest-Threat From Reps Committee (Details)

Nigerians React As NIMASA DG Faces Arrest-Threat From Reps Committee (Details)

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has threatened to call for the arrest of the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Safety and Administration Agency (NIMASA), Dayo Mobereola, if he fails to appear before the Committee on Wednesday, July 17.

Ireporteronline reports that the committee is investigating a petition against the agency by Abade-Toru Manga Community Development Initiative.

In the petition addressed to the Speaker of the House, the petitioners claimed that NIMASA failed to establish educational and skills acquisition projects in the coastal communities as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

They stated that the Agency had made the commitment in line with the recommendations at the Global Maritime Security Conference 2019 to introduce educational, entrepreneurship training, and skills acquisition programmes in fishing, clearing and forwarding, and legal bunkering, for people in the coastal communities.

They alleged that rather than living up to this commitment, the former Director General of the agency, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, decided to build a Maritime Skill Acquisition Centre and Twin Lecture Theatre in Kaduna State, where he hails from.

As part of its investigations, the committee summoned the current DG, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, to appear in person, to explain why NIMASA failed to replicate the skills acquisition centers in the five States where it operates (Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers).

The Chairman of the committee, Hon. Mike Etaba, warned that if the DG fails to appear, the Committee will direct the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to arrest him and bring him before the committee.

He said the committee is exercising its investigative powers under Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), adding that governance is a continuum, and whatever Jamoh omitted to do for the coastal communities during his tenure can be done by Dr. Dayo Mobereola, who is now the Director-General of NIMASA.