Customs, Ocean Star in battle royale

A clearing and forwarding company, Ocean Star Shipping, owned by Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam, last Friday defeated Maritime Millionaires, the highly rated football team of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in the first semi-final match of the ongoing 5th Ships & Ports Maritime Cup Competition at theAstro Turf, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, by a lone goal.
Ocean Star’s goal was scored in the 42nd minute of the first half by jersey number nine, Femi Otunla.
Ocean Star, which is participating in the competition for the first time, qualified for the semi-final by defeating Nigerian Navy 2-1 last Wednesday.
The company will face defending champion, Nigeria Customs Service in the final match of the competition, which will be played at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, today.

Customs, which had earlier defeated last year’s runner-up, Micura Stevedoring Services by three goals to one, secured its third consecutive final match ticket by defeating ENL Consortium 2-1 in the second semi-final match played last Friday evening at the Astro Turf, National Stadium.
Abubakar Mukaila scored Customs’ first goal in the first half, while Joseph Edet scored the second goal.
ENL Consortium’s only goal was scored by Deji Abolarin.
ENL Consortium will play the third place match against NIMASA.

In its march through the various stages to the final match today, Ocean Star had won four of its five matches, losing only once.
Customs recorded the same tally.
However, while Customs notched up 18 goals, conceding three, in its journey to today’s final match, Ocean Star recorded 11 goals for, and four against, in its own trip to the final match.
The table of the Customs’ matches includes: Customs versus NIMASA, 0 : 1; Bollore versus Customs, 0 : 10; Customs versus Certified Institute of Shipping (CIS), 3 : 0; Customs versus Micura, 3: 1; and ENL versus Customs, 1 : 2.
For Ocean Star, the table reads: Sifax versus Ocean Star, 1 : 3; ENL versus Ocean Star, 2 : 1; Ocean Star versus Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), 4 : 0; Navy versus Ocean Star, 1 : 2; and NIMASA versus Ocean Star, 0 : 1.