THE Federal Government has ordered that any port and terminal facility across the country having security deficiencies be shut down following the arrival of officials of the United States Coast Guards in Nigeria to carry out security audit exercise on Nigerian ports Vanguard learnt.
Disclosing this fact to Vanguard the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime Mr. Leke Oyewole said that any terminal or port facility that is found to have security deficiencies will be short before the arrival of the US Coast Guard officials who will begin their inspection exercise on Tuesday.
The  officials  of the US  Coast Guards will arrive Nigeria today to carry out an audit exercise of the security  deficiencies observed in some  ports and terminal facilities to determine their compliance level with International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code.
Operators of such facilities were seen over the week end putting last minutes measures in place to avoid sanction. The U. S Coast Guard had observed on their first visit that Nigeria port facilities fall short of compliance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code hence a second verification exercise to test compliance level.
Already, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), which was appointed as the Designated Authority to midwife the implementation of the ISPS Code, has been collaborating with various stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime industry to ensure that there are no deficiencies in their facilities.
It will be recalled that the United States Government, about three months ago threatened to withdraw shipping services to Nigeria, if some of the security deficiencies observed in some facilities are not corrected within ninety days.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/08/fg-orders-shutdown-of-ports-facilities-with-security-challenges/#sthash.WyuaztqF.dpuf

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Posted: at 26-08-2013 04:40 PM (10 years ago) | Hero

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