NIGERIAN ship owners may have decided to ensure faithful implementation of the nation’s inland and coastal shipping policy, otherwise known as cabotage law, as they have started to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute foreign vessels and their captains, who contravene the provision of the law.
Already, they have effected arrest of a vessel and her captain for allegedly lifting 10,000 litres of petroleum products within Nigerian coastal waters to Ibafon petroleum products jetty in Apapa, Lagos. The vessel is currently under detention following the order of a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly breaching Cabotage law.
The vessel, which is owned by MBX Shipping Limited, based in St. Vincent and The Grenades, was dragged before the court by Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN) and an indigenous shipping company, Pokat Nigeria Limited.
The tanker was alleged to have contravened relevant sections of the Coastal and Inland Shipping Act of 2003 by engaging in the carriage of petroleum products within Nigerian waters.
Under the Cabotage Act of 2003, carriage of goods and persons within Nigeria coastal waters are to be undertaken by Nigerian flagged ships. Such ships must also be crewed by Nigerians and must be repaired in Nigerian shipyards.
Details of how the ordeal of the tanker vessel started could not be ascertained as at press time, but it was confirmed that the landmark suit had been slated for hearing this week by Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court, Lagos.
While ISAN and the indigenous shipping company, Pokat, are the plaintiffs/applicants, the trio of the ship, her owners and the shipmaster (whose identity could also not be confirmed) are the defendants.
The controversial ship is presently anchored at the Ibafon jetty where the court has confined her, pending the determination of the case against her.
In the originating summons, the vessel was alleged to have violated sections 2,3,5,9,11,12,15,22,23,29,33 of the Cabotage Act, a development which made the plaintiffs to seek the prayers of the court that she be detained and put under the custody of Admiralty Marshal of the Federal High Court.
The court was said to have granted an order of interim injunction restraining the defendants from obtaining the all-important port clearance with which the ship could escape from Nigerian waters or be engaged in trading “within Nigerian waters or exclusive economic zone pending the determination of the motion on notice.”