*Section of the Escravos channel
Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — A supply vessel, ‘M/T DEVISA’ has crashed into the breakwaters of the Escravos channels damaging the vessel and part of the mole.
Speaking to Sweetcrudereports on the development, Captain Tobi Charlie, Managing Director of Escravos Pilots Nig. Limited, said that the vessel was traveling at night when the accident occurred adding that immediately after the accident the vessel began to take in water.
According to Capt Tobi, as a result of the accident part of the breakwater has submerged and he called on the authorities to quickly rehabilitate the facility before more accidents occur on that axis of the port.
He explained that because the mole was submerged, the vessel did not know it was close to it and ran into the mole and got its bottom hull damaged.
The vessel, according to Captain Tobi, is currently sitting on the rocks of the mole.
Speaking in similar vein, former Senior Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan on maritime matters, Mr. Leke Oyewole, said the negligence on the part of the government was responsible for the lapses being experience in the Warri port.
Oyewole said he cannot fathom any reason for the continued neglect of the breakwaters considering the volume of maritime activities going on in that area.
According to the former Presidential aide, the repairs of the mole on that channel were long overdue adding that the oil exploration activities should make the government repair the damaged moles.
He stated: “The mole has collapsed for a long time and it ought to have been repaired; there is no exact reason why it has remained like that.
NOSDRA absolves oil firms from Niger Delta coastline pollution
“The only thing that could come to anybody’s mind is probably negligence, nothing more, otherwise, the traffic on that channel may not be too heavy but then the oil exploration activities should also command that the place should be repaired.
“I think we need to re-focus and ensure that the place is repaired because it has claimed lives.”
