At least 90 ships seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are rotting away in various waters in Nigeria.
Out of the 90, Lagos has the highest number of abandoned vessels that are submerging into waters, while Port Harcourt, Warri, and Bayelsa also have a fair share of seized ships that are wasting away.
According to Punch, these ships are temporarily and permanently forfeited by suspected corrupt persons but are being damaged due to lack of maintenance.
A member of the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective, Efficient Management, and Utilisation, who does not want his name mentioned, said a lot of these assets is totally sealed up.
“There are some of these assets that are still being managed by third parties. But a lot of them are just totally sealed up. Like business premises, they allow the people operating on the premises to continue, while they pay (rent) into the Recovery Account…they are paying rent to the EFCC. But for the ones that are not like that, they are sealed up and those ones are depreciating.
“Now, let me tell you the worst-case and where you will feel bad about depreciation (of recovered/seized assets): houses depreciate but not as bad as the vessels in the waters. Most of the ships that were supposedly seized, a number of them sunk – three or four of them have submerged because nobody can take care of them.
“In fact, most of the ones in the Lagos waters have badly depreciated…they are like just holding the shell when the snail is dead. That is what has happened to most of the vessels. About 10 percent have been submerged, while the other ones are just in a terrible state that they cannot attract much value again.”
When asked for the number of ships and vessels on the waters across the country, the lawmaker disclosed that over 30 were in Port Harcourt, about 10 in Warri, and about 10 in Bayelsa, adding, “They (Navy) have quite a lot and they are really in a bad shape.”
The source noted that while the “ones with the most value are in Port Harcourt,” they are all in the custody of the Nigerian Navy.
“Even though they were forfeited to the EFCC, the EFCC cannot protect them; it is the Navy that is protecting them,” he said.
The lawmaker noted that ships that were supposed to be powered regularly had been abandoned for close to seven years “and because of that, they have started to take in water.”
“I initially doubted the submerging story. We went to the water. I actually did not believe that they were submerged. But we actually saw ships inside the water,” the lawmaker added.
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