The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, has said that the agency is not opposed to the establishment of the Nigerian Maritime University NMU, Okerenkoko in the Warri South West Local Government of Delta State.

Recall that the bill for the establishment of the NMU has passed the second reading stage at the Senate

Head of Corporate Communications Department of the agency, Mr. Isichei Osamgbe, who made this commitment in Lagos, spoke on behalf of the Director General of the agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside against the backdrop of insinuations in a section of the media that the agency is opposed to the establishment of the institution.

The Ijaw Youth Council IYC, had also issued a statement in which it alleged that the agency does not support the dream of having a maritime university in the area.

He assured that contrary to these insinuations, which he described as misleading, the Federal Government is more than ever before committed to the realisation of the dream of the takeoff of the NMU as quick as possible.

“The attention of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, has been drawn to insinuations in a section of the media and a recent press statement by the Ijaw Youth Council IYC, to the effect that the agency is opposed to the establishment of the Nigerian Maritime University. This assertion is far from the truth and it has become necessary to clarify the issue as the Federal Government is committed to the actualisation of the project which the agency conceived”, the DG said emphatically.

According to him, NIMASA is in full support of every aspect of the law in its determination to fulfill its obligations.

He also reminded those making these insinuations that the National Assembly recently held a public hearing on the matter, adding that the proposed enabling legislation for the Maritime University is expected to specify the funding model for the institution and other aspects of running it.

The statement insisted that at no time did the Director General of the agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside say anything contrary to the Federal Government’s position on the issue, insisting that the agency, which conceived the idea of the university in the first place is solidly stand behind the Federal Government in its determination to actualise the project.

“The benefits derivable from the setting up of the institution will be quite numerous. Apart from becoming a citadel for knowledge and development of human capital, job opportunities will be created or the Nigerian people, particularly the host community, Okerenkoko in the Gbaramatu Kingdom, he said.

Representatives and leaders of the people of the Niger Delta, under the aegis of Pan-Niger Delta Forum, had recently submitted a16 –point condition to President Muhammadu Buhari, which the Federal Government must meet for lasting peace to return to the oil-rich region.

The meeting, which was at the instance of the Federal Government, was part of measures to assuage the feeling of marginalization of the people, which gave rise hostility in the region and the attendant bombing of oil installations in the area by the Niger Delta Avengers and other agitators.

King Alfred Diete-Spiff, the Amanayabo of Brass and chairman of the Traditional Rulers Council in Bayelsa State, who presented the 16-point request at the Niger Delta stakeholders’ meeting with Buhari held at the State House listed the opening of the Nigerian Maritime University as part of the conditions.