Saturday, May 9Nigeria's Authoritative Maritime News Magazine
Shadow

Author: Asu Beks

This is fraud: NNPC GMD must offer scholarship to Okafor the way they offered Al-Amin

This is fraud: NNPC GMD must offer scholarship to Okafor the way they offered Al-Amin

Education, Politics
Few days ago, social media was ablaze with the celebration of Tochukwu Okafor who carted away EVERY award in Engineering from UNIBEN namely: Best Graduating Student, University of Benin. — Dean’s Prize to the Best Graduating Student in academic performance, Faculty of Engineering.‎ ‎— Department Prize to the Best Graduating Student, Department of Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. — Nigerian Society of Engineers Prize to the Best Overall Graduating Student in the Faculty of Engineering. — Arch. Aminu Abubakar Prize to the Best Graduating Student in the Department of Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. ‎— Nicholas and Victoria Osifo Memorial Scholarship to the Best Graduating Student in Engineering. He graduated with a stunning 4.95CGPA i...
‘Look, Akpabio, I’m not a bastard’ — How Mu’azu opposed plan to reject Buhari’s victory

‘Look, Akpabio, I’m not a bastard’ — How Mu’azu opposed plan to reject Buhari’s victory

Politics
Ahmed Adamu Mu’azu, chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the historic 2015 presidential poll, furiously reacted to suggestions that he should reject Muhammadu Buhari’s victory after President Goodluck Jonathan had openly conceded. Jonathan, after congratulating Buhari in an unprecedented telephone call while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was yet to officially announce the winner, told party members that although he had conceded to Buhari in his personal capacity, PDP was free to reject the result. Before Jonathan conceded, however, Mu’azu had threatened to do so on behalf of the party. He even stopped picking Jonathan’s calls at some point. All these are snippets of the intrigues that followed Jonathan’s defeat — as narrated by Bolaji Abd...
Nigerian Network of NGOs celebrates silver jubilee in grand style in Lagos

Nigerian Network of NGOs celebrates silver jubilee in grand style in Lagos

NGO
The Nigerian Network of NGOs, NNNGO, a coalition of not-for-profit organisations in the country yesterday rolled out the drums and brass band to celebrate 25 years of advocacy against poverty, pestilence, human rights abuses and natural disasters. The 17th Annual Anniversary of the Network attracted scores of NGOs, distinguished personalities and agencies in the public sector. In her Anniversary remarks, the British Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Ms. Laure Beaufils, commended the organisation for standing up to the tyranny of power, adding that citizens groups were vital for the socio-economic health of the country. She noted that citizens groups were responsible for the Arab Spring of 2011. She charged NGOs operating in the country to be transparent, accountable, enthrone feedbac...
Exam Malpractice: Customs Cancels Promotional Exam

Exam Malpractice: Customs Cancels Promotional Exam

Breaking News, Education
THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has cancelled the promotion examination recently conducted for senior officers from the rank of Assistant Comptroller to Deputy Comptroller over irregularities noticed in the conduct of the examination. The Comptroller General of the Service, Col Hameed Ali (rtd), according to an internal circular, ordered the cancellation of the recently conducted promotion examination for officers moving from the rank of Assistant Comptroller to Deputy Comptroller over alleged malpractices. The circular dated November 22, 2017 signed by the Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Human Resources announced the cancellation, while Monday November 27, 2017 has been fixed for a repeat of the examination at the Customs Command at Staff College, Gwagwalada Abuja. The ...
NPA rolls out ease of doing business model in Eastern ports

NPA rolls out ease of doing business model in Eastern ports

Maritime, Port News
In continuation of its ongoing interaction with the Port Communities, the Management of Nigerian Ports Authority have met with maritime stakeholders in Onne and Port Harcourt Areas, where they met with Operators with a view to identifying areas of needs in order for the Authority to engender greater operational efficiency at the Nation’s Seaports. The Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, who was ably represented by Executive Director, Marine and Operations, Dr Sokonte Huttin Davies stated that it is imperative for all Agencies at the Ports to contribute meaningfully  towards actualizing and facilitate Ease of Doing Business at the Ports, stressing that Management on its part would work towards creating an enabling environment for Stakeholders to operate optimally. The interac...
Senate Blasts President Buhari Administration

Senate Blasts President Buhari Administration

Politics
The Senate was put into confusion on Wednesday when a lawmaker Identified as  Biodun Olujimi, accused President Muhammadu Buhari of losing authority on his administration. Mrs. Olujimi, PDP-Ekiti, was responding to a motion on the face-off between Nigeria’s security agencies raised by Dino Melaye, Kogi-APC. Officials of the State Security Services, SSS, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, were involved in a showdown on Tuesday when EFCC operatives attempted to arrest the immediate past Director-General of the SSS, Ekpenyong Ita. A similar scenario also played out when SSS operatives prevented the anti-graft agency from arresting the former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke. Presenting the motion, Mr. Melaye called on the Senate to...
Seme Customs Command Rakes in N5.3b in 10 Months

Seme Customs Command Rakes in N5.3b in 10 Months

Business
By Sylvanus Ekpo The Nigeria Customs Service, Seme Command, generated a total of N5.3 billion between January and October, 2017 in spite of the downturn in the economy through the Lagos Abidjan Corridor. Also, 23 persons are undergoing trial for various offenses. Making the claims recently, the Comptroller of the command, Mohammed Aliyu, said the command used the collaborative anti-smuggling approach with other security agencies to dislodge and ground the activities of economic saboteurs. In turn, the command witnessed the decline in smuggling in the Seme border axis while there was a corresponding increase in revenue generation. He stated that the anti-smuggling unit made a total of 469 seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N508, 469, 776.00 for the period under review. In...
Russia is least ranked in its own World Cup

Russia is least ranked in its own World Cup

Sports
For the first time since the FIFA ranking began in 1993, the host nation for the World Cup will be the least ranked. The highest ranked country among the 32 jostling for the World Cup is Germany at the topmost position. Russia at number 65 will be the worst ranked team when it hosts the World Cup next summer, marking the first time in history when the host nation has the lowest ranking of all the tournament participants. Russia qualified automatically and even heads Pot 1 which harbours the seven highest ranked countries, including the number one, Germany. The next lowest ranked teams are Saudi Arabia in 63rd, South Korea in 62nd, first-time World Cup participant Panama in 49th and Morocco in 48th. As hosts, Russia was automatically placed into the first seeding pot for the ...
NPA: Port reform without road reform

NPA: Port reform without road reform

Business, Port News
by Sylvanus Ekpo These are not the best of times for the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA. It is no longer news that the port access roads at Apapa and Tin Can Island ports are in a terrible state of disrepair. According to the Port Act of 1954 as amended, section 32 mandates the NPA to regulate traffic that is moving in and the one which is approaching but over the years, due to executive recklessness, the access roads were allowed to decay and today they have become an embarrassment to everybody, a congenital eyesore in the face of our port concession. Before the ports were concessioned in 2006 to private terminal operators by government, the NPA had a yearly throughput of 35million tons of cargo, a figure that could hardly be managed then. But, after the concession in March 2006, the...
IMO Council: Nigeria Woos Foreign Diplomats For Nigeria’s Election

IMO Council: Nigeria Woos Foreign Diplomats For Nigeria’s Election

Business, Press Release
…Says NIMASA Has Put Nigeria High to Win Council Seat In a bid to ensure that Nigeria wins the re-election into one of the highest decision making body of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), an arm of the United Nation (UN) responsible for global maritime regulation, the Minister of Transportation Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geofrey Onyema has called on all Heads of Foreign Missions to support the country’s quest as it seeks election into the Category C of the IMO Council. Speaking at the Cocktail Dinner in honour of Foreign Missions organized by the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the yesterday in Abuja, Mr. Onyema said that as a key player in the global maritime industry, Nigeria has playe...