Minister of transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi
Capt. Hosa Okunbo
By Our Reporter
Between the Minister of Transportation, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi and Chairman of Ocean Marine Solutions Ltd (OMSL), Capt. Hosa Okunbo all seems not to be well as Amechi said he cancelled the maritime security contract handled by OMSL because the deal was laced with fraud.
Ameachi who spoke on African Independent Television (AIT), also accused the company of incompetence.
According to Amaechi, his ministry cancelled the maritime security contract, which Captain Hosa Okunbo’s Ocean Marine Solutions Limited (OMSL) was undertaking, because the deal was laced with fraud, adding that OMSL was grossly inefficient, didn’t have the federal government’s approval to execute the contract and was charging very high rates.
Amaechi challenged Okunbo to come forward with the approval letter he got from the federal government to provide maritime security on the nation’s waterways.
Asked by the programme presenter, Ijeoma Osamor, to comment on the battle between the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) and Hosa Okunbo’s Ocean Marine Solutions Limited, Amaechi retorted, “What security was he (Hosa Okunbo) providing?”
He said: “He charges each vessel on the waters 2,500 US dollars, then after that 1,500 US dollars everyday, he doesn’t pay back that money to the federal govt. He makes 17 million US dollars from that activity, who approved it, nobody!
“So as minister for transport, I said no, we can provide that security, 195 million dollars was approved by the federal government to a company that is training Nigerians that will take over the waterways, and take care of the security, then Okunbo is now saying no no, I must do it, he can’t! I wonder why our personal interest will override national interest. I wonder what kind of country we belong to.”
He emphasized: “The federal government has awarded a contract of 195 million dollars to a company to take care of the waterways security and now Captain Hosa is saying he must be the one to do it.”
Ameachi further explained: “If you said Captain Hosa was doing it, how come we are currently ranked number one in the world in terms of insecurity in the maritime sector. When we came, we were number three, but now we are number one in the world.
“Now the second aspect beyond ranking number one in the world in insecurity, is the fact that we are notorious as a country in the whole of Gulf of Guinea; 80 per cent of the crimes in the Gulf of Guinea is committed in Nigerian waters.”
