The presidency has di-rected the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), to set aside $10 million (about N1.3 billion) as contribution to fund the war against illegal crude oil bunkering, managing director of the authority, Mr. Adebayo Sanumi, has said.
Speaking yesterday at a budget defence session with the House of Representatives Standing Committee on marine transport, Sarumi, who suggested that NPA had nothing to do with oil bunkering, said, however, that the directive of the presidency to contribute money to fight the crime would be heeded.
The managing director said he had received communication from Aso Rock to provide $10 million for the anti-bunkering crusade, and that this would affect the authority’s financial muscle in 2004.
“We agree that illegal oil bunkering bleeds the economy,” he said, but contended that NPA was not in any way responsible, explaining further that the National Maritime Authority (NMA), and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), should also be made to bear the brunt since they also operate in the seas.
Sarumi also said that plans had reached top gear to begin sack of workers in the NPA, saying, the severance packages of the affected staff were factored in the budget.
Defending the staff lay-offs, the managing director said it was a “universal” phenomenon to do away with workers whose services were no longer required.
He also spoke on the concession of the nation’s ports, explaining that the Apapa port could go by February, 2005, while the process for conceding Port Harcourt and Tin Can Island ports were to be concluded by early second quarter of next year. The remaining ports would be ceded after the second quarter.
By the end of 2005, he said, 100 percent of the terminals could be divested.
The managing director said concession of the nation’s ports to provide investors would mean less work for the authority and no excuse for ineptitude.
Sarumi, however, said the existing ports Act had given room for a maximum of five-year period for the concessionaire, adding that this was not comfortable to the private firms, who would prefer a longer period.
But he said that the law had given President Olusegun Obasanjo powers to extend the concession period.
Denying the recent media report (not in Daily Trust), alleging that NPA had spent N180 billion unbudgeted funds, Sarumi said the publication was ridiculous, as the authority had not spent this amount in the past five years.
He said NPA never spent beyond N50 billion in a year, and that the submission made to the public accounts committee of the House, from where the said report emanated, was NPA’s audited accounts of six years from 1998.
Earlier, committee chairman, Emeka Ihedioha also refuted the report, saying it was “misleading” and “surprising.”
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