The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions has summoned the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Safety and Administration Agency, Dayo Mobereola, to appear before it on July 17, 2024, or face arrest.

The Committee, chaired by Michael Etaba, who represents Obubra/Etung Federal Constituency in Cross River State, is investigating NIMASA over a petition submitted by the Abade-Toru Manga Community Development Initiative on December 4, 2023.

The Reps responded to the petition in a brief statement sighted by PUNCH Online on Sunday.

The petition claims that the agency failed to establish educational and skills acquisition projects in coastal communities as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility.

The group alleged in their petition that NIMASA “had expressed commitment in line with the recommendations at the Global Maritime Security Conference 2019, to introduce educational, entrepreneurship training, and skills acquisition programs in the areas of fishing, clearing and forwarding, and legal bunkering, for people in the coastal communities.”

However, “rather than living up to this commitment, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, who then held sway at NIMASA as the Director-General, decided to build a Maritime Skill Acquisition Centre and Twin Lecture Theatre in Kaduna State, where he hails from.”

The Committee has urged Mr Mobereola to appear in person to explain why NIMASA failed to replicate the skills acquisition centres in the five states where it operates, namely Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers.

The Committee warned that failure to appear would result in directing the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to arrest and bring him before the panel.

“The Committee will direct the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to arrest and bring him before the panel,” the statement read.

The Committee is exercising its investigative powers under Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

It emphasised that governance is a continuum, and “whatever Dr Jamoh omitted to do for the coastal communities during his tenure can be done by Dr Mobereola, who is now the DG of NIMASA.”