The Acting Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi has directed one of the consultants to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Portplus Ltd to overhaul and deploy two abandoned security vessels, ‘Customs Pride’ and ‘Group of Nine’ for operations within the next forty days.
Customs Area Controller, Western Marine, Comptroller Odaudu Salefu, who disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Lagos on Monday, also said that NCS management is set to acquire two new additional patrol vessels from Singapore.
He said the contractual issues between Customs and the vessels’ consultant, Portplus Limited led to the abandonment of the marine assets at the Lagos Marina for eight years.
Salefu disclosed that the NCS spent an average of N23 million per annum for maintenance of the ships.
He also said space has been a challenge as Portplus Limited has been having challenges at the Naval dockyard for dry-docking of the vessels.