Some senior staff of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) have accused the Director General of the agency, Bashir Jamoh of nepotism.
Some of the staff, who spoke with SHIPS & PORTS over the weekend, said since assumption of office in March 2020, Jamoh has consistently appointed only northerners to head most of the key positions in the agency.
Findings by SHIPS & PORTS reveals that all the four zones and Abuja Office of NIMASA are headed by northerners. The zones are Western Zone based in Lagos, Central Zone based in Warri, Eastern Zone based in Port Harcourt, Northern Zone and the Abuja Office.
The NIMASA Western Zone is headed by Kabir Murnai from Katsina State, the Central Zone in Warri is headed by one Bappa M. Musa from Borno State, the Eastern Zone is headed by Yusuf Barde from Katsina State while the Northern Zone is headed by Waibe Auta from Plateau State. The NIMASA Abuja Office is also headed by a northerner named Musa Zalani Attah from Adamawa State.
Also, all but one of the Port Service Controllers (PSC) in all the zones are northerners. They are Sani Zaria for Apapa and Abubakar Jiga for Ibeju Lekki, both under the Western Zone. The Port Service Controllers in the Eastern Zone are Nuhu Umar for Port Harcourt, Mohammed Ibrahim for Onne and Ibrahim Umar for Calabar while the Head of the Central Zone, Dappa M. Musa from Borno State, also acts as its Port Service Controller covering Ohgara, Sapele, Burutu and Forcadoes. Only one out of the existing seven PSCs of the agency, Chizoba Anyika (Tin Can Island Port) is a southerner.
One of the senior staff of the agency, speaking with SHIPS & PORTS on condition of anonymity over fears of victimisation by the Director General, said, “In most cases, these staff were not the most senior or most competent when he asked them to assume office as Head. Never in the history of NIMASA has the agency been so religiously and tribally divided. The big question to be asked is: why are all the Heads of the Zones of NIMASA, which are located in the south, headed by only northerners?
“Because he is married to former President Muhammadu Buhari’s niece and because his first daughter is married to the former President’s nephew, the DG thinks he is above the law. Perhaps because the former President elevated him above his peers from the position of an Assistant Director to that of an Executive Director and later to Director-General, Bashir Jamoh thinks he can do anything and get away with it.”
The staff also accused Jamoh of sidelining the three Executive Directors appointed to serve with him in the Executive Management Team of the agency and has decided to “run NIMASA as his personal property while institutionalising nepotism” since his appointment as Director General of the agency three years ago.
He called on President Bola Tinubu to order a staff audit and investigate the affairs of the agency under Jamoh.
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