NIWA mobilises 350 officers to halt waterway crashes

The National Inland Waterways Authority has recruited 350 marshals to uphold safety standards at jetties across the country’s waterways.

This follows a series of accidents that have recently affected the country’s water transportation.

However, the agency is set to enforce laws that will enable commuters to imbibe safety measures.

This was made known on October 25, 2024, at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, when the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NIWA, Bola Oyebamiji, had an interactive session.

In a statement obtained by Saturday PUNCH, Oyebamiji revealed that NIWA was committed to ensuring the safety of Nigeria’s waterways.

He noted that the efforts were successful, as the waterways were becoming safer.

“Ensuring safety on the waterways is certainly not about putting the code in place alone, but also providing and deploying the required infrastructure for adequate execution of the agency’s activities,” the managing director said.

To enforce safety, Oyebamiji said the creation of NIWA River Marshalls was to provide useful information to passengers and others at jetties and loading points across the country.

“They also see to the compliance with safety regulations by not only operators, but passengers as well. At the initial stage of its inauguration, it had 80 personnel. However, within a short period, the figure has grown to 350 in order to cover the country,” he explained.

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