The National Assembly joint Committee investigating activities of foreign vessel owners in the country on Tuesday disclosed that it will sanction the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside for his consistent failure to appear before it.
This is even as the panel walked out a team of the agency that came to represent the DG at the a public hearing.
Senator Teslim Folarin, Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Contents, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Legor Idagbo, said it was outright disregard on NASS for the DG to shun several invite by the panel.
The Joint National Assembly committee on Local Content, Petroleum Downstream and Legislative Compliance is investigating the breach of Nigerian laws by foreign vessel owners in the coastal region of the country.
Folarin said, “It is very unfortunate that men in position of authority would flagrantly shun the invitation of the senate. I spoke with Peterside about this event. He was supposed to come three weeks ago but he didn’t come.
“We rescheduled this event because of him. I called him and asked him to pick a date and he picked today, only for him to write tge Clerk three days ago that the Senate Committee was coming to see him.
“This is an investigative hearing which supercede any other engagement. We won’t sit here and be wasting our time. We will give him one more chance, just one chance. If he failed to honour the next invitation, we know what to do.”
Chairman of the House Committee on Local Content, Idagbo said, “I think we should be ashamed of ourselves as Nigerians. A situation where invitations are sent out and all we get are excuses. I’m aware that Senator Folarin had conversation with the DG of NIMASA and he picked this date.
“The DG went through his calendar and picked this date only for him to send representatives to us today. This committee’s invitation got first before that of the House but he chose to ignore us.
“What the DG of NIMASA should have done is to explain to the House Committee that he already had an invitation to an investigative hearing from this joint committee. He could even honour our invitation and still meet up with his appointment with the House committee.
” We cannot continue like this as a country. We sit down at the comfort of our offices and live large. We copy what happens in other countries yet we failed to do what they do there. We fail to respect constituted authority.
“You people (NIMASA) should be ashamed of yourself. How do we move forward as a country if we continue like this? What engagement is more important than this type of investigative hearing. This type of attitude is unacceptable.”
Solomon Ayado
