Things have completely fallen apart in Dayo Mobereola’s NIMASA who has spent only about six months into his 4 year tenure and it is obvious that the Center cannot hold. Barely 24 hours after Dayo Mobereola, Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency , NIMASA and his Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services, Mr Jibril Abba, replied to a query issued the duo by the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Chief Adegboyega Oyetola over allegations of impropriety leveled against them by a Vendor in India, overseeing NSDP program at Centurion University, over 100 cadets mostly from Greece who have been stranded in Nigeria on Tuesday stormed the Agency. The students, were protesting against the non challant manner NIMASA had handled their welfare and other needs.
A spokesman for the protesting students accused the Mobereola led management of refusing to honour invoices sent by their schools in the past six months. This, according to their spokesman, have left them stranded in Nigeria as the University authorities have politely told them not to bother to return to school since NIMASA had refused to settle their bills. Said the Spokesman for the group who craved for anonymity: “Like our colleagues from Centurion University in INDIA, we were also home for our annual vacation about three months ago. But we were shocked when we got mails from our school in Greece that due to the fact that the school could not afford to bear the cost of our return tickets after the holidays and coupled with refusal of NIMASA to settle all outstanding cost of running the program including school fees, we were advised not to return”, he said. Shipping World Magazine has on good authority the school specifically advised the affected schools not to return to school until the pending bills are honored. In a similar manner, the authorities at CENTURION University and NIMASA are at daggers drawn over another set of 296 students who are at the risk deportation following the refusal of NIMASA to honour its Contractual obligations as specified in the memorandum of understanding signed between the Agency and the INSTITUTION. This delay prompted lawyers to the Vendor to send a Save our Souls letter to the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to carry out an Independent investigation into the issues raised in the petition. The matter last week earned the DG and his ED a query from the Minister. When contacted, Mr Eddie Osagie, spokesman for the Agency confirmed that some aggrieved cadets stormed the Agency but refused to offer further details. Dr Dayo Mobereola was appointed helmsman of the Agency in March, 2024 after the expiration of the tenure of Dr Bashir Jamoh . Some Stakeholders who spoke on condition of anonymity with Shipping World magazine are worried about the disturbing signals emerging from NIMASA ,insisting that should the current trend continue, there would be need for a Presidential intervention to salvage the Agency.