A Consummate Investigation and Research By Eval Asikong
Cross River Inland Water-Ways Task Force was created on the 10th of July, 2015 by Governor Ben Ayade. The Task Force is headed by Mr Mike Adie, a retired State Commandant of NDLEA as Chairman with other members and representatives from the Army, Customs and Immigration.
The Task Force was created based on the reality that any society that is situated along the maritime corridor has the high propensity for wealth generation and economic expansion, if well managed. So far so good, the task force has achieved great feat in its remarkable generation of revenue which is directly paid to the state’s consolidated account in just few months which is pursuant to its specified mandate by the Governor.
The Task force commenced operations in November, 2015 by spotting over 170 revenue generation spots in areas of sand minning, gravel minning and allied activities spanning across the three Senatoral zones of the state, but those areas by law, have been given to the Cross River Water Front Management Agency to take care of now.
Before the Wharf Landing committee was formed, the Taskforce was saddled with the responsibility of policing the waterways to ensure that contraband goods don’t enter the state without proper check from the state’s revenue authorities which In June, the Inland Waterways Taskforce impounded 700 contraband bags of rice boated to the shores of Bakassi, and the attention of revenue authority was called. This generated one million Naira to the state purse. It should be known that before now, such revenue leakages used to take place within the state’s maritime corridor before the Governor decided to create the Inland Waterways Taskforce in June, 2015, and the Wharf Landing Committee in 2015.
It will be interesting to know that the decision by the Governor to appoint Mr Mike Adie as the Chairman of the Taskforce was informed by the fact that Mike, when he was an NDLEA State Commandant, was the officer in charge of the special task force on security set by Major General Musa Bamaiyi, who was then the NDLEA national head. So he understands the dynamics of taskforce operations.
In the past, shipments of refined products do arrive the state on weekly basis and discharge oil from NPA to Portside through the internal state’s pipeline without paying facility charge. Facility charge per ship, by law, is N1.323 million. Now, it is very difficult to know when a ship will be arriving and how many will arrive in a month. What Mr Mike did was that he used his connection in NDLEA to have access to Alhaji Bamanga Tukurr who is the owner of Eco Marine Company that controls Calabar port.
With that connection, he was able to reach an agreement with the Eco Marine company that before a ship could berth, that ship should get clearance from the task force chairman, and with the help and cooperation of the Portmaster, it become possible for Mike to know when and how many ships will be arriving Calabar in a month, which has never been. Ordinarily, shipment of refined products can arrived Calabar and discharge products without anyone knowing and without paying facility charges. But with the creation of the Inland Waterways Taskforce headed by Mr Mike, that is history.
It was because of this strategy that Mike was able to make 3 ships that arrived in the Month of June this year to pay their facility charges with the N1million generated from impounded rice which amounted to N4.969 million and in July this year, N5,292 million has been generated so far from 4 ships, with one more on its way. The mode of payment is very transparent: the Chairman of the task force gave the State Consolidated account numbers to the tank farm management and only confirms the payments’ evidences like tellers. Once the evidence is gotten, he will now send a mail to Eco Marine to allow ship to berth.
The tank farms operating at the Calabar Portside are: Mainland Oil and Gas; Mettle Energy;WABECO Oil and Gas and KTL Knights Oil and Gas. Out of these four, only Mainland Oil and Gas is functional. If the other four should start functioning, the state’s inland Waterways Task Force will generate four times of what it is generating now.
As one of the task force responsibilities, it is expected to clear cross river water channels of wreckages like sank ships and badges capable of hampering free movements at the maritime corridor, and invite the state Agency for Scrap Metals to sell them as “Scrap Metals” which will generate money for the state.
The taskforce is also devoted to standardise boat operations and other maritime passenger services through ensuring the availability of life jackets and passenger manifest and also ensure that all boats register with appropriate authorities for security purpose.
The body is also to ensure the aesthetics of the state maritime shoreline by ensuring that maritime operations and activities don’t destroy the shore line and to ensure that the public are not denied access to carry out activities within the shoreline which is nature’s gift to them. Also, most shorelines are transit outlets for narcotic drugs like Carnabis Staiva (Indian hemp) which also aid in fuelling criminal activities. The Task force is to check against this too.
By Eval Asikong