Controversy is currently trailing the continuous issuance of bunkering permit by the Nigerian Navy, a development stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime industry have described as an aberration.
Speaking to newsmen at the on-going Lagos International Maritime Week, General Manager, Planning of the Nigerian Navy, Commodore Igbani Agwu, said that the Navy had to come to issuance of bunkering permit because the space had to be regulated because of the unwholesome activities being experienced in that sector.
Agwu also said that the Navy had to come into the issuance of bunkering permit because Nigeria is the only country in the world where oil theft occurs, hence the Naval intervention.
However, some stakeholders who spoke on the development debunked the claims by the Navy, saying that crude oil theft occurs all over the world but that the Navies of other countries are not involved in the commercial activities of their shipping industries.
A member of the Nigerian Ship Owners Association, (NISA), who pleaded anonymity, said that Nigerian Navy’s involvement in the issuance of bunkering permit can only be permissible in Nigeria because of the entrenched interest the Navy as an institution has in commercial shipping activities.
The NISA member also said that oil theft takes place in Mexico, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Cameroon, Sudan and other parts of the world.
Also commenting, the President of the Nigerian Master Mariners Association, Capt Tajudeen Alao, argued that before the Nigerian Navy started the issuance of bunkering permit, the Nigeria Customs Service was solely in charge of such issuance.
Alao explained that the Navy got involved because of the abuse of the entire process of issuing bunkering permits and approvals, adding that the Navy is also put in charge of economic breaches on the nation’s waters.
Similarly, a British Navy officer, Commander Dan Wiskett told newsmen that the British Navy is not in any way involved in the commercial activities of his country.
