The Nation Newspaper

Category: Business

  • Land allocation abuse

    Sometimes ago there was a news item about a former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja allocating several plots of land to his wives, the President and other cronies some of which were done the day he was leaving office. Similarly, a lot of furore has been generated by several abuses of land allocation in Ogun State of recent.

    If other states are examined, the story is not likely to be different. We also woke up one morning only to be told that two first ladies were fighting over allocation of the same plot in Abuja.

    A former first lady claimed that the land in question was allocated to her while a present one was equally allocated the same piece of land! There had also been several cases of political vindictiveness in some states where allocations of land were revoked not for public overriding purposes but because the alottees belong to different political parties from those of the incumbent governors. Those who drafted the land use decree (now Act) must have thought that these kind of things would happen by not arrogating the power to allocate land absolutely to one person, the state governor.

    In their wisdom, they made provision for the establishment of a “Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC) whose purpose is to make sure that the process of land allocation to the citizens of each state is subjected to some processes of scrutiny and rational reasoning before allocations of land are made. Hence, section 2.2 of the Land Use Act (LUA) provides. “There shall be established in each state a body to be known as “the Land Use and Allocation Committee” which shall have responsibility for:-
    (a) Advising the Military Governor on any matter connected with the management of land to which paragraph (a) of subsection (1) above relates;

    (b). Advising the Military Governor on any matter connected with the resettlement of persons affected by the revocation of rights of occupancy on the ground of overriding public interest under this Decree; and

    (c) Determining disputes as to the amount of compensation payable under this Decree for improvements on land.
    Now paragraph (a) of subsection (1) states – “As from the commencement of this Decree, all land in urban areas shall be under the control and management of the Military Governor of each state”.

    It is clear from these two sections that the control and management of land in each state is to be done by the Governor subject to or with the advice of the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC)!
    Section 5 of the decree also made similar provision in respect of land in the rural areas, i.e. “there shall be established a Land Allocation Advisory Committee in each local government to advise the local government on any matter connected with the management of land to which paragraph (b) of subsection (1) above refers”.

    The subsection referred to states- “all other land shall subject to this Decree, be under the control and management of the local government within the area of jurisdiction of which the land is situated”

    It follows therefore that the management and control of land in the rural areas should also be subject to the advice of the “Land Allocation Advisory Committee” to be set up in each local government areas.

    The question that should come to mind now is how many state governments have constituted Land Use and Allocation Committee? In the absence of such a committee, state governors have continued to singularly excise the right to allocate land in their states to whoever pleases them and at rates and conditions determined by them! That is why it is possible for some governors to allocate land to their cronies with a waiver of statutory payments some to even to ridiculous extents! The case of Ogun State may be a child’s play if what is happening or has happened in most other states are exposed.

    In the same way, if the FCT has a functional Land Use and Allocation Committee, most of the abuses of land allocation that have been exposed there may not have happened. A former Minister of the FCT discovered and exposed a lot of irregularities in the allocation of land in the Federal Capital where land meant for public uses, open spaces and land over sewers were allocated to cronies of people in power but he is said to have ended up committing similar offences during his own tenure.

    “Absolute power corrupts” is a common saying. Perhaps this is what was in the mind of those who drafted the Land Use Decree that made them to insert the clause that provided for the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC). Unfortunately, ours is a country where those in power choose which part of the laws they will obey. In more civilized countries, somebody would have gone to court to compel the Governors to obey this constitutional requirement of the Land Use Act to constitute the Land Use and Allocation Committee (LUAC) as provided for in the law.

    Section 2.3 made provision for the membership of the Land Use and Allocation Committee. This is to include a legal practitioner and two estate surveyors and valuers of not less than five (5) years’ experience. The inclusion of these professionals is to bring some professional expertise to the process of control and management of land in the states.
    The writers of the law must have envisaged that the Governors would not necessarily be knowledgeable enough in the management of land- a very scarce resource. Hence the provision for two estate surveyors who are trained in the economics of land use and management in the committee. This is to ensure that every action to be taken by the Governor would have passed the necessary test during the deliberation of the committee. In the same vein, all the legal implications of any excise to be recommended by the committee would have been subjected to legal scrutiny to ensure that all actions of the Governors in the process of land allocation and management including revocation of rights are perfectly within the law.

    There is little wonder then why there had been several abuses of land uses whereby land meant for public open spaces, schools, hospitals, shops, fire and police, etc. have been converted to residential plots and allocated to satisfy the demands of friends and political associates of the governors in power! The Land Use and Allocation Committee would have prevented these happening if such decisions have passed through them. But even in the few cases where such committees have been constituted, these professionals are not included as provided by the law.

    There had been calls for the removal of the Land Use Act from the constitution to make it amenable to amendments as and when necessary or to amend several parts of it which have been found unworkable. Thirteen years of the National Assemblies have failed to produce a single amendment to this law! Perhaps the on-going proposal to amend parts of the 1979 constitution to which the Land Use Act was made a part of by the Obasanjo’s supreme military council by a fiat will finally direct its search light on this part of the constitution.

    If this happens, it will be delighted if an amendment could be made to make it compulsory for all land allocations by the Governors to be subject to the recommendation of the Land Use and Allocation Committee. If this is done, it will, to some extent, curb or reduce the flagrant abuse of the process of land allocation by the Governors.

  • Congestion looms over arbitrary port charges

    Congestion is looming at the ports over arbitrary charges by shipping companies and terminal operators.
    Importers are worried that if the trend is not checked, it may kill business at the ports.

    The importers alleged that the charges do not conform with international standard.

    They blamed the concessioning of the port to private owners for the development.

    Investigation showed that some of the terminal operators collect between N4,000 and N5,000 on a container per day, while shipping companies charge as much as N8, 800 per day.

    The implication of the charges, importers said, is that if a container stays for 10 days at the port, they may be forced to pay as much as N200,000 to clear their goods.

    President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGGAF) Mr Eugene Nweke, said the arbitrary charges had become a recurrent decimal at the ports.

    Nweke said the seven per cent port levy being imposed on the shippers was meant for the concessionaires to put the port in shape.

    “Since the concession of the port about six years ago, shippers still pay the seven per cent port levy, which is an arbitrary charge,” he said.

    He said Terminal Handling Charges (THC) were supposed to be paid by the shipping companies to the terminal operators.

    “Terminal handling charges had been charged and paid by the carriers to the terminal operators, but the terminal operators still come back to collect the charges from the shippers,” he alleged.

    He said the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) had the mandate to publish charges and urged them to do so from time to time.

    Chairman, Shipping and Logistics Services Limited, Mr Johnson Adebayo alleged that there are formal and informal charges at the ports, adding that the informal charges are more than the formal charges.

    He said the single window system introduced by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) may solve the arbitrary charges in the industry if other stakeholders at the ports key into the programme.

    Adebayo urged the Federal Government and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to find a lasting solution to the problem of arbitrary charges.

    National Co-ordinator of Save Nigerian Freight Forwarders Mr Chiazo Peter told The Nation that there was need for the NSC to operate independently, based on the law that established it.

    “NSC should be the voice of the sector, because they are the shippers. They have the right to regulate charges levied on import and export,” he said.

    A clearing agent, Mr Kayode Ogunsanu blamed the council for not carrying out its mandatory function on regulation of charges by the shipping companies.

    Ogunsanu said the terminal and shipping charges paid by importers did not conform with international standard.

    Executive Secretary, NSC, Capt. Adamu Biu, said the charges had become a problem in the sector, and that the council was studying it to come out with a recommendation to solve the problem.

    He said issues of shipping charges, terminal and container charges would be looked into.

  • Why honesty is important

    The importance of integrity in real estate transactions cannot be over emphasised. It is always good to foster a climate of honesty and morality, failure to do it can have unintended and unexpected consequences.

    To underscore its importance, an extensive study by a group said: “Honesty and trustworthiness is ranked the most important factor when choosing an agent to work with or in any business concern for that matter.”

    It is, therefore, relevant that we pay attention to some of the intriguing and occasionally disturbing issues confronting those in the sector. Once a client notices a slip from an agent or a business associate, he will be on his guard while nursing the feeling that he may probably be dealing with a rogue agent.

    As a matter of fact, he will pursue that line of thinking except there is a clear departure in terms of attitude change and confidence building in future engagements. “Faking it” – exaggerating or being deliberately misleading about one’s status – and engaging in other acts of dishonesty is not in tandem with property business.

    The sad thing about this business is that most people are willing to be somewhat dishonest in order to better themselves.
    The reward does not even have to be significantly large – it might be just a little higher than the agreed margin or figure.
    It should also be noted that most people will not be grossly dishonest or engage in blatant cheating even if the prospect of being caught is clearly zero.

    People who engage in fakery about themselves show a much greater than normal willingness to be dishonest and usually it will just be a matter of time before their real selves are discovered by a greater majority.

    Somebody related this story to me of how he saved all he had to buy a piece of land at Ibafo, along the Lagos /Ibadan expressway.
    He said: “I meet this agent who mouthed his prowess in buying properties for clients along the axis and trusted him with all l had. He even showcased pictures and numbers of those he had worked for – all that took me in and l fell for his sweet talks.”

    The summary of the story is that l was in a kind of fix because l was under pressure to get a piece of land and start the project to move myself in. After dribbling me for a long while we finally settled on a piece of land and l lost the time l so much desired to gain.

    All his promises that l will get the property in two weeks extended to over six months after taking me to several properties with encumbrances. At the end of it l was left not only exhausted but completely devastated as l spent more than l planned to do in settling several landowners.”

    From my experience l learnt that in property business transactions, the bottom line is that we should not view a single act of dishonesty as just one petty act.
    We should also realise that the first act of dishonesty might be particularly important in shaping the way a person looks at a property agent or business associate himself from that point on… that is why it is important to cut down on the number of seemingly innocuous singular acts of dishonesty.

    The truth is that immoral acts in one domain can influence our morality in other domains. That being the case, we should focus on early signs of dishonest behaviours and do our best to cut them down in their budding stages before they reach full bloom.
    It is not too hard to apply these lessons to the real estate business. It is understandable, but regrettable, that agents – and companies – will frequently engage in puffery, not just about their properties but about themselves.

    In the never-ending quest to gain market share there is a constant temptation to fake it – to say or claim a bit more about ourselves than may actually be true.

    Unfortunately, a lot of people exaggerate about their job performance, education, past experience, etc. And there is a tendency to say, “What harm can there be in that? Everyone does it. No one gets hurt.”

    It’s always better to pay heed to those little hunches before you go all the way. Good luck!

  • Shippers, trawler owners cry out over piracy

    The Shippers Association of Lagos (SAL) has cried out over the rising insecurity on the waterways.

    The waterways, it said, had become a haven for robbery, urging the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to secure the terrain.

    SAL General Secretary Mr Jonathan Nicol said NIMASA must collaborate with the law enforcement agencies to tackle the problem.

    Nicol urged NIMASA to do more to secure goods and ships on waterways.

    “NIMASA should use helicopter regularly to checkmate these pirates and also seek the protection of the Navy, Customs and the police on the issue.

    “If the Federal Government fails to do this, it means we are going to lose so much revenue from that sector,” Nicol said.

    He said the loss of lives and rising attacks by armed robbers and pirates on Nigerian waters compared to other West African countries, was regrettable.
    “We have had quite a lot of complaints from fishermen that they were being raided by pirates, some have lost their lives and one of the two fishing companies has left Nigerian shores to Ghana.

    “Ghana is doing very fine; it has quite close to 100 fishing trawlers, operating within her territorial waters,” Nicol said.

    The Trawler Owners Association (NITOA) has suggested radar and satellite technology as part of the measures NIMASA should look into in finding a solution to the problem.

    The President of NITOA, Mr Joseph Overo, and the former president, Mrs Margaret Orakwusi, called on the National Assembly to urgently look at the Anti-Piracy Bill before it as many indigenous companies have been crippled and many children orphaned because sea pirates activities.

    A representative of the Directorate of Fisheries, Mrs Bola Kupolati, identified radar technology and effective information sharing as the solution to the incessant high-jacking and robbery of shipping trawlers and oil vessels.

    She lamented that trawler owners have been discouraged from reporting cases of attacks on their vessels because nothing has been done by NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy about the cases so far.

    The number of reported cases is not correct as many fishing companies have stopped reporting because of the attacks while many have been run out of business with the frequent attacks.

    “Nigeria’s food security is being affected; our foreign exchange is being affected because these activities lead to capital flight as more foreign vessels now do most of the jobs,” she said

    But NIMASA’s Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Hajia Lami Tumaka, said the agency was addressing the security challenges on the waterways.

    She said NIMASA was discussing with Nigcomsat Nigeria Limited for the integration of NIMASA into its satellite information to secure the waters.

    Hajia Tumaka added that the agency had initiated some interim measures to enhance security within and outside the nation’s territorial waters.

    She said the agency was working with security agencies such as the Air Force, Navy, Army and Police to ensure that the waterways are safe for freighting and fishing.

    Mrs Tumaka advised trawler owners to ensure that they pay adequate attention to the remuneration of their crew because many are badly paid, noting that poor pay usually leads them into criminal activities, such as selling their first catch at sea and subsequently drawing the attention of pirates.

  • How to rent part of your house for income

    Renting part of your house to a tenant may generate the extra cash that you need but it may also attract some untoward consequences, though not in all cases.

    The first rule is to be prepared to tolerate the excesses of some tenants, if you are unlucky to get an unruly and boisterous tenant.

    Many landlords vow that they will never live in the same compound with their tenants, but I have come to find out that this line of thinking is mutual as some tenants will also swear that nothing will make them live in the same environment with their landlords.

    The relationship is more challenging if you have common areas with your tenant and have need to either contribute money to maintain it or do it yourselves.

    This challenge is more pronounced on Saturdays when families do their laundry and have limited space for airing or hanging their clothes, and where the compound generally needs to be cleaned either jointly or paid for. If you don’t deal with the issues squarely it may escalate and bring a lot of bad blood in the same environment.
    The way to go is to start on an official note.

    A landlord-tenant relationship is not personal; it’s business. The important thing to remember when you are thinking about bringing in a tenant is that it’s a business deal, not a friendship. You need to do everything and anything a landlord would do, including charging a security deposit and establishing all the rules and regulations upfront.

    A potential landlord’s first order of business is to decide whether the income is worth the loss of privacy and stress associated with it if, for instance, he is unlucky to have a noisy and uncontrollable tenant.

    One needs to think carefully about whether they want to live with someone else; it does not matter how big or small the compound is.

    If the house is in flats it becomes a lot easier, but if it is tenement rooms, the challenges become more pronounced because as a landlord you have to decide if you are willing to share a bathroom, toilet and a kitchen or look for money to build these convenience for your personal use.

    “It’s important to know what you want and how you want to live, even in terms of the hours you and your tenants can keep and types of friends you can bring in.”

    The rules cannot be changed mid-way, so it’s always better to draw the line at the start of business.
    Things as how many cars that can be parked inside and how to share security, electricity and water rate bills if there is no provision for separate metres must be sorted out at the onset of the business transaction.

    A landlord will do himself a world of good by providing all that he needs to provide in the house for the comfort of the tenant and refrain from looking only at what will come in as rentals while neglecting the comfort of the tenant. It’s also important for him to get legal advice as to his right and that of the tenant.

    In Lagos for instance, the new Tenancy Law makes it illegal for any landlord to receive more than a year rent from a new tenant otherwise he will be liable to pay a fine of N100, 000 or be sentenced to three years imprisonment. As a landlord you don’t want to run foul of the law, ignorance they say is not an excuse in law! On the other hand, it will also be unlawful for a tenant to offer to pay more than a year rent even though it gives room for the two parties to sign a tenancy agreement. The law, the state government said was put in place to protect the landlord and tenant, so if as a tenant or landlord you carelessly enter into an agreement to beat the law by clandestinely paying or accepting above what the law stipulates and the business goes sour none of the parties will be able to get any relief from the court.

    The caution here is that in your hurry to collect rentals please educate yourself on the responsibilities of each party to the agreement and the government angle to it. I have seen a situation where a tenant exploited the loophole in an agreement to stay for over five years in a property without paying rentals. The watchword here is while trying to earn income from your hard earned property don’t allow yourself to be taken advantage of. Take all precautions and stay on the side of the law. Goodluck!

  • ANLCA opposes CRFFN fee collection

    The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA) has condemned the approval given to the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) by the Minister of Transport to collect practising fees at the ports.It threatened to shut down the ports.

    Its president, Alhaji Olayiwola Shittu, has resigned his membership of CRFFN to back his association’s demand.

    Speaking with The Nation in his office, Shittu said ANCLA opposed the collection of practising fees by the CRFFN because “it is inimical to the growth of the association and will render the association penniless.”

    The ANLCA chief said to show faith with his constituency, he has resigned his membership from the council.

    “I can not carry out this fight and remain in the council, it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

    He said ANLCA had sent a letter to the CRFFN rejecting the offer by the council to give the association some amount yearly instead of giving it a percentage of the collected money.

    “We are not giving them any option. We will also write to the minister telling him of our own interpretation of transaction fees and why we object to it.

    “The fourth is that we shall go to court; we will take CRFFN to court and if the government goes ahead to enforce the dues collection we will shut down the ports,” Shittu said.

  • Crash victims’ families plan suit to stop Dana’s operation

    WILL it be business as usual for dana Air following the restoration of its operating licence?

    The signs are that the airline still has a lot to contend with before returning to business.

    The airline’s operation was suspended following the crash of its flight D-992 in Iju-Ishaga, a Lagos suburb in which 153 persons died.

    Some of the victims families, it was learnt, are planning a suit to stop the airline from resuming operations.

    The airline has to grapple with how to rebuild passengers’ confidence on the use of the McDonnel Douglass 83 type aircraft for its operations. The plane had lost two engines few minutes to landing at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

    Some passengers, who spoke to The Nation, expressed reservations over their patronage of the airline, if its management sticks to the use of the aircraft.

    They urged the airline management to consider choosing another aircraft type , which they said would boost passengers’ confidence .

    Another challenge the airline may face is the delay in the payment of compensation to families of victims that died in the crash.

    According to the Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr Harold Demuren, the airline has only paid 62 of the 153 families that died in the crash. He gave reasons why the delay.

    Demuren cited the slow pace of identification of victims bodies; the need to ensure that documentation is tidy by appropriate identification of the right person to pay and prevention of multiple claims.

    He said the payment of 91 other families may take some time because of litigation, as some families in the United Kingdom, United States and other parts of the world have gone to court over the crash.

    Demuren also confirmed that Dana because of its aircraft type may have to go through recertification before it resumes operations so as to allow the authorities ascertain that everything is technically fit with the aircraft.

    He said : “ We cannot say how soon Dana will resume operations . We cannot say, the airline has been working hard, but, we have to ensure that everything is in order, especially ensuring that most of the dead are buried. We have to ensure that there is no default in the payment of claims to family members, who have lost their bread winners to the crash.

    “You know Dana has a peculiar challenge, they have a homogenous fleet. We have to recertify their aircraft and ensure that everything is okay with the aircraft type before they can resume operations.”

    Other hurdles include the readiness of the carrier and its insurers to pay the outstanding $70,000 to families that lost their relatives to the crash.

    Dana had sent most of its workers home a month after the crash because of increasing overhead costs and may now require more time to put its house in order to regain their loyalty ahead of the resumption of flights.

    Some loyal passengers of the airline, it was learnt, have however been inundating the carrier with proposals of how to ensure successful operations.

    Part of the suggestions is for the airline to consider buying new aircraft other than McDonnel Douglass 83, which they consider too controversial after the crash.

    A source close to the airline however, hinted that Dana is working behind the scene to re-launch its flight in a manner that may spark a revolution in the aviation industry.

    Part of the plans of the airline is to acquire newer planes in line with the passengers demand.

    There has been mixed feeling in the aviation industry over the lifting of the suspension on DANA Air. While the Airline Operators of Nigeria ( AON), the umbrella body of domestic carriers described it as a welcome development, some families of the bereaved had flayed the directive lifting the ban on the airline,
    Speaking on the development, the chairman of AON, Dr Steve Manhonwu described it as evidence that the government is listening to the clamour of stakeholders.

    Manhonwu said : “: With this early lifting of the ban, it is proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the government has listening ears and has the milk of human sympathy in the system. Please do not forget the reports of Sosoliso and Bellview Airlines so that their disorganised staff should come back to the basis.”

    The 558 staff of the airline also expressed appreciation to the Federal Government for lifting the ban Speaking through the chief executive officer of DANA Air, Mr Jacky Hathiramani said : “ The provision of safe, reliable world class air transport services has always been our focus at DANA Air, and we will continue to adhere strictly to safety procedures as required by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Act and other relevant local and international regulations, as we resume flight operations shortly.”

     

  • Unilever partners Facebook , others to deliver drinking water to communities

    Unilever, through the Unilever Foundation, in partnership with PSI (Population Services International) has announced the launch of Waterworks, a non-for-profit programme, that will provide safe clean drinking water to communities in need around the world.

    Waterworks, which operates through a ground-breaking Timeline application developed jointly with Facebook, will connect people with means directly with people and communities in need.

    Water is the source of life, but almost 800 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water. Preventable water-borne diseases, such as dysentery and diarrhoea are a particular threat to the weakest members of society: a child dies from water-related illness every 20 seconds.

    Unilever’s Chief Marketing Officer, Keith Weed, said his company has made a public and ambitious commitment through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan to provide safe drinking water to 500 million people by 2020 working in partnership with others.

    He said they share the belief with United Nation’s declaration in July 2010 which states that safe and clean drinking water is a human right. On the reason behind the partnership with Facebook, he said:

    “At Unilever, we believe that small, everyday actions can add up to a big difference; and that the power of social connections can drive real change around the world.

    On Facebook, nearly a billion people take small actions every day, they connect to the individuals and organisations that matter most to them and they discover new things through their friends. We want to leverage the power of the social graph and the ripple effects that each person’s actions can create, to inspire and enrol many more to make a difference.”
    Waterworks is among the first Timeline applications for charitable giving, connecting Facebook users around the world with real individuals and communities in need. People will be invited to sign up and connect the application to their Facebook Timeline.

    In addition they will partner with a PSI-trained Waterworker and choose a small daily donation and the contributed funds will directly support the water-poor communities, by providing education about the benefits of clean drinking water in addition to distributing water purifiers and sachets to families in need, Weed said.

  • Challenges of colour variation in painting

    The fundamental function of painting in a building is the preservation of the exposed construction materials from deterioration.

    To enhance the aesthetic value of buildings, the decorating aspect of painting becomes prominent, leading to colour selection. Painting reveals the poorness or quality of plastering and rendering.

    During painting, crevices in rendered walls become visible, enabling concealment with the application of poly filler and coats.

    Smoothness of wall surface is appreciated in gloss or emotion paint. A poorly rendered wall surface necessitates, in most cases, the use of textured paint in order to hide the roughness of the wall surface. Of course, textured paint protects the external walls from serious weather effects, however, it provides better grip for reptiles.

    It is quite difficult to place the actual colour of a paint until it has sufficiently become dry on the wall. And according to Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), paint after 168 hours of exposure shall exhibit little or no change in colour.

    On the field, spreading rate or coverage of a paint has been discovered, at times, to be at variance with the specification even when thinned with water not exceeding manufacturer’s instruction and under normal application.

    Applying another coat for different batches cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, using a particular colour paint from different batches in the same room or on the same stretch of wall is risky as noticeable colour variation might appear.

    Science and technology have witnessed great acceleration in recent times all over the world, creating perfection in the production of various goods. Improvement in paint production in Nigeria should not yield to defeatist philosophy of impossibility.

    The embarrassing and costly colour variation issue should be addressed with all seriousness to enhance the value of painting and decorating in the nation’s building industry.

  • NEMA seeks wrecks removal

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has reiterated the need to remove wrecked ships from the Nigerian coastlines as a precautionary measure against maritime disaster.

    Its Director of Planning and Research and Forecasting, Dr Charles Agbo, gave the advice while inspecting the Kuramo Beach after the ocean surge in Lagos that claimed many lives.

    Agbo said the Federal Government was committed to preventing maritime disaster at all cost.

    According to him, the first step towards that is to ensure the removal of all wrecked ships from the coastal areas.

    The director said, “The Federal Government has ordered the removal of all wrecked ships in the Nigeria coastal area.

    “That order will be enforced to reduce ocean surge and we urge everyone to comply.”

    Agbo also said there were many wrecked ships on the coastline, especially at the Oniru Beach.

    “We are at the peak period of rainfall and anything that can cause disaster should be avoided.

    “There will be more assessment of the coastal areas from time to time, to stem the incidence of rising ocean tide,’’ he said.

    He advised all those involved in maritime activities to be very observant and careful to prevent further disaster.