Firm Petitions NPA, Protests Alleged Fraud at Warri Pilotage District

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

A pilotage firm, Escravos Ship Pilot Nigeria Limited (ESPNL), has protested alleged sharp practices at the Warri pilotage district of Delta state to the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA).
ESPNL, recently contracted by the federal government to conduct pilotage services on ships sailing out of the Warri pilotage district, lamented that the alleged collusion of operators of oil service boats with officers at the Warri port has been short-changing the NPA of revenue to the tune of millions of naira.
ESPNL, in a protest letter dated December 20, 2023 addressed to the Managing Director, NPA, Koko Bello, urged him to wade in urgently into the ugly development of oil service boats/tankers and sanction any ports officials found to be implicated in the nefarious activities.

The Technical Director of ESPNL, Captain Charlie Tobi, in a copy of the letter made available to THISDAY, lamented that a sting operation carried out on operators of oil service boats in the mandate area revealed that majority of them have not been presenting for signing/endorsement the mandatory documents, particularly “the Master Declaration Sheer”.

“Investigations by ESPNL revealed that majority of the recalcitrant oil service boat operators have been colluding with unnamed NPA top officials who, in effect, have been letting them off the hook on issuing them what is known in the local parlance as ‘off record’, after receiving unspecified gratifications, thus diverting revenue meant for the federal government to private pockets.

“This is one of the reasons why the Warri Port is poor. The bad eggs within the NPA have been sabotaging the good efforts of the federal government,”he said.
THISDAY gathered that while Intels is presently doing the monitoring, ESPNL is doing pilotage of oil service boats.
 Tobi noted that operators of all oil service boats within the operational area are mandated to sign/endorse their “Master Declaration Sheet” showing the particulars of the ship, the owners, agents, cargo type as well as the gross registered tonnage, among others, in the course of any voyage undertaken for NPA’s record and for the safety of the vessel.

“They are referred to as off record vessels. These practices were carried out by the previous harbour masters and were stopped by the management for contracting of Escravos Warri Pilotage District to ESPNL.
“They are sabotaging management’s good efforts, and they are economic saboteurs. We cannot fold our arms and watch them continue these cruel habits.
“The management lacks funds to rebuild the Escravos submerged breakwaters, but these set of people are diverting the revenue that is supposed to come to the NPA’s purse. Only revenue generated from oil service boats is enough to rebuild the breakwaters.
“Harbour Master is supposed to fight for the interest of the NPA. We are appealing to the management to use its good offices to arrest this ugly act being carried out in this harbour,”he said.

A vessel owner, Joseph Fuludo, owner of MV David Rhema, admitted that the contractors that took over from Intels for oil service boats pilotage had not seen master declarations for his vessels for four trips.
While urging NPA to “step up efforts in its clearance operations to checkmate sharp practices in the system”, Fuludo stated that if a vessel is not cleared before going out, modalities ought to be put in place to cross check at the signal stations along the route.

“Ordinarily, a vessel’s movement could be tracked from its point of departure en route its voyage till it berths at the jetty. It is not ship-owners’ duty to do NPA’s job for them,” he submitted.
The pilotage operations cover the channels between Escravos Fairway Buoy to Bennett Island, Escravos to Forcados River, Agge Anchorage to Ramos River and adjoining waters and channels.