Breaking News – Page 21 – Shipping World News Magazine

Nov242017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Exam Malpractice: Customs Cancels Promotional Exam

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. ...

Nov202017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Apapa Gridlock Conduit Pipe for Extortion By Taskforce – Survey

Breaking News, Business, Law, Maritime, Port News

Backdropped against the decision by the Lagos State government to institute a joint security task force, it has become apparent that some selfish personnel are taking advantage of their new status to extort the people. As trailers and tankers jostle for space to inch towards the ports or tank farms, a syndicate operating within the "chaotic axis" is busy extorting money from the drivers to pay their way through the logjam. Investigations carried out by Shipping World reveal that drivers pay as much as #50,000 to #100,000 to be allowed to shunt the queue and head straight under escort into the port for business. This often takes place at night when Lagos is asleep. It is not clear if this syndicate has the backing of the authorities in Alausa but there are concerns that the unsav...

Nov202017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Tin Can Port Impounds Container of Illicit Drugs

Breaking News, Law, Maritime

The Nigeria Customs Service has reiterated its desire to continue to build on the existing inter-Agency cooperation with all concerned regulatory Agencies, to ensure that illicit and uncustomed goods are intercepted at the Ports, for the good of the Nation’s Economy and Nigeria as a whole. The Customs Area Controller, Tincan Island Port, Lagos, CAC Yusuf Bashar stated this while handing over a 40ft container with number MRKU 519445/3 containing cartons of Spectradol (Tramadol) Capsules of various milligrams, Spectra-Doxycycline Capsules of various milligrams as well as Jinart Tablets. Other drugs seized are Clarinthromycin Tablets of five hundred milligrams and Jincold-Extra Strength Capsules of various milligrams. Speaking on the negative effect of the drugs on the teeming Ni...

Nov162017 by Our EditorNo Comments

INTELS: The End of the Road

Breaking News, Business, Law, Maritime, Opinion, Politics

by Sylvania Ekpo The sledgehammer seems to have come down hard on the integrated logistics limited, Intel's and her subsidiaries with the revocation of the residence permits of their expatriate staff by the federal government. According to a statement by the Nigeria immigration service, NIS, the decision was taken after the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, OGFZA, withdrew the operational licence. The affected staff are expected to leave Nigeria by November 30, 2017 failing which they might be deported by the ministry of interior. Intels, a company owned by the former vice-president and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, Atiku Abubakar, was in the news early in October when it was reported that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had terminated its pilotage contract in Onne, ...

Nov162017 by Our EditorNo Comments

I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E! Senate Holds on to Customs 2015, 2016, 2017 Budgets

Breaking News, Business, Maritime

The seeming face off between the Nigerian Senate and Customs helmsman Hameed Ali is taking a huge toll on anti smuggling drive and revenue generation efforts of the Nigerian Customs Service. And this may further hamper the ease of doing business at the ports. This has led to deliberate refusal of the Senate to appropriate capital funds to the agency which is the reason there is a shortfall in anti smuggling patrol vehicles and functional scanners at the nation's major entry points among other essential needs of the agency. The Nigerian Customs Service is the third highest revenue earner for the country. Hameed Ali and the Senate have been engrossed in an ego war for almost two years now on account of the Customs Chief refusing to appear in the red chambers donned in Customs uniform. ...

Oct312017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Breaking: Buhari to appoint more ministers

Breaking News, Politics

President Muhammadu Buhari will soon appoint more ministers into his cabinet. He will also make board appointments, a demand by his party members over the months. President Buhari gave hints of the new appointments in a speech delivered today to the National Executive of the All Progressives Congress at the national secretariat in Abuja. President Buhari at the moment has 36 ministers, with 14 of them being ministers of state. He doubles as the full minister of petroleum. When he appointed them in 2015, he said he was having a trimmed cabinet to avoid waste. Now faced by demands by his party for more inclusiveness and patronage, he said he would be shifting ground soon. The “compressed Federal Executive Council”, he said, “will be expanded to bring in more supporters at Federal Lev...

Oct302017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Why Nigeria Needs A Functional Coast Guard – Amaechi

Breaking News, Business, Law

Transportation Minister Rotimi AMAECHI, took a retrospective look at the challenges facing Nigeria's Maritime Security architecture and concluded that there could be no better time than now to have a functional Coast Guard. AMAECHI made the disclosure while contributing to a lecture titled " Ensuring Safe and Secure Water ways Transportation " presented by Rear Admiral AA Oshinowo. Amaechi was speaking at the World Maritime Day which held Monday at Eko Hotel and Suites Lagos with the theme "Connecting Sips, Ports and People. The minister explained all stakeholders must come together and agree on the methodology to create an enabling environment for a full fledged Coast Guard. Said AMAECHI, " We cannot call the present collaboration between NIMASA , the Navy and Air force as a Coast G...

Oct302017 by Our EditorNo Comments

NIMASA approves 250 Cadets for Sea time Training

Breaking News, Business, Port News

Succour has last come the way of the graduates of NIMASA's seaferers development program as the first batch of about 250 Cadets have been invited to the NIMASA' Corporate head office , Lagos, this week for documentation . The documentation Shipping World learnt is preparatory to the placement of the Cadets who completed their degree programs over three years ago to be placed on the mandatory one year on board training before certification. The Agency's Executive Director Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services ,Mr Gambo Ahmed confirmed to Shipping World exclusively in Lagos Monday that NIMASA have concluded arrangements with selected Ship owners in the UK and Cairo , Egypt for the placements. One of the beneficiaries Eniye Emokpo was full of praises for the Director General of NIMAS...

Oct292017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Fed Civil Service Yet to Disengage Maina

Breaking News, Law, Politics

Despite an order last week by President Muhammadu Buhari that the embattled former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, be dismissed from service on account of his mysterious return and re-engagement by the Federal Civil Service Commission, indications are rife that he may not have been officially sacked by his employers. Usually dependable sources at the Civil Service Commission told our magazine that the process of his formal disengagement is yet to commence. " We cannot sack him based on a mere verbal order by Mr President. The Civil Service is an institution guided by rules and regulations, and Maina's case cannot be an exception", said our source. It was learnt that as at the close of business last Friday, the Commission was yet t...

Oct272017 by Our EditorNo Comments

Buhari’s government is 50 percent PDP controlled, says Hameed Ali Customs Boss

Breaking News, Politics

Comptroller General of Nigeria Custom Service, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali has said that the Buhari government has not been able to move forward and fulfill its campaign promises because most of those calling the shots in the government are those who never believed in the President’s vision. Ali’s assertion was supported by Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong who said state governors are not happy that they are left out of appointments being made by the government. Speaking at the commissioning of the office complex of the Buhari Support Organisation in (BSO) in Abuja, Col Ali who is also the National Coordinator of the Organisation said that more than fifty percent of positions in the Buhari government were handled over to members of the PDP who fought against the actualisation of a B...