‘Nigerian Maritime Academy gradually becoming council primary school’

THeinterim Management Committee of the Nigerian Maritime Academy has lamented the poor standard of the school. The Chairman of the committee, Adebayo Sarumi, revealed this at the presentation of a new roadmap for the academy.

According to him, the agency under the Ministry of Transportation has been neglected for too long, and expressed displeasure that a Federal Government establishment could be reduced to a local government primary school. He said there was the need to balance the poor staffing in the school, adding that the proportion of non-academic staff is 80 per cent to 20 per cent of academic staff.

He said the situation is unacceptable, as it is not the best for the school. According to him: “If the authorities want to assist a local community there are other ways it could be done, instead of turning a federal establishment into a local government school.”

He said the way the stakeholders are presently running the school was nothing short of a local government affair.

The fact-finding committee was appointed in September 2017 to run the affairs of the academy for six months. According to the committee, a fact-finding study of the academy since its inception showed that it could not be compared with the global standard of maritime academy. primary

AREA Comptroller of the Nigerian Customs Service, Lagos Airport Command, Jayne Shoboiki, yesterday accused cargo agents, ground handlers and officers of pilfering. He blamed them for conniving to steal cargoes, a situation, she said, has led to loss of revenue to importers and the Federal Government.

Shoboiki warned the culprits to desist from the ‘sabotage’ or face the wrath of the law.

The comptroller, who was recently redeployed to the command, said the NCS would no longer tolerate the diversion of government revenues by unscrupulous elements in the system.

She explained that within a week of her redeployment to the command, she had noticed some loopholes in the system, which must be stopped.

Shoboiki also alleged that some of the ground-handling officials at the tarmac, not only connive with the agents to short change government of its revenues, but also actively participate in stealing cargo at the tarmac.

She vowed that, henceforth, such dastardly attitude would be checkmated by the system that the organisation had put in place.

She said: “We seem to have a lot of challenges with the ground-handling workers at this airport, especially at the tarmac.

“Any agent that is caught stealing cargo would have his licence seized. Also, agents should not collect contraband products from importers.”