Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure the removal of ship wrecks and abandoned vessels from the city’s coastline.
The wrecks and vessels are defacing the coastline, Fashola said at the Nigeria Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) in Lagos.
Represented by his Commissioner of Transport Mr Kayode Opeifa, Fashola said in Lagos, over 250 metres of the coastline have been eroded in the last three years by abandoned vessels and wrecked ships.
He urged the Federal Government to save over 18 million Lagosians from ocean surge.
Torrential rains in parts of the state last year, he said, were tragic as many lives were lost and properties worth millions of naira washed away.
The wrecks should be removed because they could serve as hide-outs to miscreants, he said.
Fashola said the state,which is the commercial nerve centre of the country, was shut and economic activities grounded to a halt following fears of flooding because of failure to remove the wrecks and vessels.
Most of the villages on the Alpha Beach, the governor said, were deserted by the residents because of the last year’s flood, warning that there may be a recurrence unless the Federal Government removed the wrecks and abandoned vessels.
Last year’s ocean surge, the governor said, was terrible because of the wrecks.
Fashola said the incident was a wake-up call for the Federal Government to take climate changes seriously.
He said there were wrecks which were potentially, either dangerous to navigation, decayed or had become hazardous, toxic and could be dangerous to the health of the people.
“We have to look into ways we can tackle the problems of ship wrecks. Ship wrecks have rendered the Lagos coastline not as safe as we intend it to be. They abound all over the state and they have become very, very difficult and expensive for us to maintain.
“The recent ocean surge along our beach line is a testimony to the problem they posed to our environment.
“It you visit Alpha beach and a lot of Lagos beaches, you will see that they are almost gone. The major cause of this is ship wreck,” Fashola said.
In his speach, the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the event, said the Federal Government is set to remove all the wrecks along the channels.
The Minister assured that the contract for the removal of the wrecks would be awarded before the end of the secon quarter of the year.
Umar also said the contract for the rehabilitation of the rail line linking Apapa would be awarded.
United States’ Consul-General in Nigeria, Mr Jeffrey Hawkins, deplored what he called the high level of insecurity on the waterways.
The Federal Government, he said, is losing about $7 billion annually because of piracy on the nation’s territorial waters and Gulf of Guinea.
Pirate attacks and sea robbery, he said, remained the major obstacles against foreign direct investment.
He claimed that some security officials were privy to some illegal activities off the nation’s coast.
He said from cargo theft to kidnapping for ransom, the Gulf of Guinea was becoming a more dangerous place to do business.
Available data and the anecdotal evidence, he said, showed that the situation is worrisome, adding that Americans do not see any hope that the situation will get better soon unless the government improves its institutional collaboration and shows the political will to tackle the problem.
“The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) recently reported that sea piracy around the globe dropped substantially in 2012, to its lowest level in five years. Yet, at the same time, the frequency of maritime attacks in the Gulf of Guinea has increased significantly. The IMB reported 10 attacks off Nigeria in 2011, then 27 attacks in 2012, and most people we’ve talked with, have suggested the IMB figures only account for a portion of actual incidents,” Hawkins said.
