create the necessary environment for the rapid development of the Niger
Delta region.Akwa stated this when a delegation from the Nigerian Navy Hydrographic
School paid him a courtesy visit at the NDDC new headquarters in Port
Harcourt.
He said that NDDC needed the support of security agencies to succeed,
noting that the presence of international oil companies in the Niger
Delta region had made the area susceptible to kidnapping and other forms
of criminality.
The NDDC Chief Executive Officer said that much as the mandate of the
Hydrographic School was basically training, it should also help with
surveillance to provide information and data that would help the other
security agencies to ensure a safe marine environment in the region.
He added: “The school should be able to share information and
intelligence to make the Niger Delta region a place people will want to
visit and set up businesses.”
Akwa said that as an interventionist agency, NDDC had a responsibility
to ensure that those who safeguard the lives and property of the people
were given the necessary support to enhance their capacity to maintain
security in the Niger Delta region.
He deplored a situation where after three decades, the Nigerian Navy
Hydrographic School was still unable to get international accreditation
because of the absence of some critical infrastructure.
He said: “It is regrettable that you have training boats yet you don’t
have a jetty. I assure you that NDDC will assist the school to achieve
the objective for which it was established.
“Getting accreditation is something we should be proud to help you
achieve because it will enhance the capacity of the Nigerian Navy to
project us to the outside world as a people that are ready to make
progress in the maritime sector.
“We are going to take your designs for the jetty to our Planning
Department to incorporate in our 2021 budget and I am confident that the
National Assembly will do justice to it. The jetty will be taken care of
as soon as the budget processes are through.”
Earlier, the Commanding Officer, Nigerian Navy Hydrographic School,
Capt. Mahmud Fana, appealed to the NDDC for support in providing
critical infrastructure that would qualify the training school for
international accreditation.
He said:”We are having setbacks because of infrastructure deficiency and
we need to have the right environment to be able to provide needed
security in our area of operation.”
Fana observed that the Hydrographic School was selected for
accreditation in 2018 by the International Hydrographic Organisation but
following an inspection of their facilities, the accreditation was
withheld pending the availability of some facilities, such as surveying
boats and a jetty.
He said that a 2018 contract for the construction of a jetty for the
school by NDDC was cancelled on account of design deficiencies. However,
he said, the school had now produced an appropriate design and would,
therefore, want the NDDC to re-award the contract for the construction
of the jetty.