Vincent Toritseju
Lagos – The Lagos Maritime Security Zone of Ports Facility Security Officer, PFSO Forum is calling for a review of the frequency of the Port Security Plan, PSP and Port Facility Security Assessment, PFSA in Nigeria.
Speaking at the monthly PFSO meeting held in Lagos last week, Chairman of the Forum, Dr. Ignatius Uche, said that the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, in charge of creating the International Ships and Port Facility Security, ISPS, Code, should extended the lifespan of PSP and PSA.
Represented at the meeting by the Vice Chairman of the Forum, Mr. Adewole Gege, he said that in other climes, the renewal of the PSP and PSA is done every five years as against every year in Nigeria. The PFSO is, however, proposing a three year renewal period for both.
Reacting to the development, Mr. Adebayo Olatoke, a senior officer in the ISPS Unit of NIMASA, told Sweetcrudereport that the guideline of the International Maritime Organization, IMO, gives contracting governments the freedom to come with any kind of device and method to implement the ISPS Code.
According to him the yearly review is backed by a law adding that until the law is reviewed, the yearly Verification Inspection Exercise will continue.
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He stated: “IMO guidelines says that contracting government can device how they want to implement the ISPS Code. There is a regulation in 2014 where it was stated that PSFA and PSP can be reviewed on a yearly basis.
“Until the law is reviewed, the renewal of PSFA and PSP will be done on a yearly basis. Competence of the officers implementing the ISPS Code is key.
“There are still attacks at the berths and this is not supposed to be, if the port security arrangements were okay, these attacks should have abated by now.
“We still have a long way to go, there are some facilities that are doing well and there are others that are not doing too well.”
