By Victor Ahiuma Young
MARITIME Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, has alleged that some oil companies in the country are using midstream operations to commit all sorts of crimes including bringing in prohibited goods into the country.

At a meeting with officials of the union in Lagos, President_General of MWUN, Comrade Emmanuel Anthony Nted, who had few days ago alleged that unscrupulous importers and un_named oil companies were using midstream operations to bring arms and other banned goods, once again, called on government to closely monitor the activities of the oil firms and importers in midstream operations.

He reiterated the union’s allegation that a cross section of Nigerian security operatives of connivance and providing illegal security for the unwholesome operations, lamenting that the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA could not claim ignorance of the unwholesome activities of these unscrupulous importers and oil companies and urged the management of NPA to rise up to the occasion save Nigeria from the antics of these criminals.

According to him: “ These unwholesome activities are mostly perpetrated in the midstream unfortunately under the watchful eyes of some unscrupulous naval personnel. You see some of these oil companies, I do not want to mention names, the government have to check them because each day we talk about arms getting into the country through the sea into Niger Delta and other parts of the country.

We all are living witnesses to the recent mayhem caused by members of Boko Haram carrying AK 47 and attacking the Bauchi prisons and its environs, freeing the prisoners and set the prisons ablaze. How did the arms get into the prison? You go to Niger Delta, come to Lagos and other parts of the country, illegal arms are in everywhere and in the wrong of the wrong people.

We are worried about the upsurge of armed banditry and rising wave of kidnapings where those involved are armed with most sophisticated arms. We are saying one of the sources of the illegal arms into the country is part of the unwholesome activities of some of the oil companies and unscrupulous importers. In the name of oil company, one agent will off_load a vessel without recourse to due process. They do not allow in dockworkers into the vessels irrespective of the law which is very clear the issue. The law says that when a vessel arrives off_shore, the shipping agent have to inform the stevedoring company allocated to that particular location and the company will in_turn inform the workers who are they engaged to off_load the vessel. No matter where the vessel is.

The argument of 10 nautical miles does not arise because the people who do the lashing are human beings, those who do the submerging are human beings.

The question that normally arise, is how do the people who then off_load the vessel get there?. Our answer is, if they get there through boats, the stevedoring workers can also get the dockworkers there through boats and if they get there through helicopters the same dockworkers also have the rights to get there through same means to perform our jobs.

Some of these oil companies are doing these to ensure that one, the dockworkers do not raise alarm and alert the authorities, two, avert payments to the stevedores and other statutory charges to the Federal Government. So the Federal Government is losing money, the dockworkers are losing, the union is losing and the nation is losing money.

To worsen the situation, the security of the nation is compromised. Now that elections are approaching, their activities are on the increase. We are calling on the Federal Government to check the activities of the off_shore operators because the Government granted them the licenses to operate as off shore operators. The law was very clear like those vessels that carry up to 50,000 metric tones that cannot go to the main ports, then they can lightened the vessel off_shore before coming to the mainstream.