Indications have emerged that the waterways anti-smuggling security patrol boats procured by former President Goodluck Jonathan Administration for the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has been abandoned since 2015 at the Marina Lagos waterfront.
According to the source: “It is more unpardonable to note that while these vessels are eaten away daily by termites, the officers and men of the Western and Eastern Marine Commands of the Customs go on patrol operations on the waterways with obsolete and smaller patrol boats that has made them easy prey for smugglers. Many have lost their lives in the process.”
The contract to build the boats was awarded to a South African firm, Kobus Naval Design, KND, by the government in 2012. The then Jonathan led Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved N3 billion for the procurement of the two NCS patrol boats for the surveillance of Nigeria waters.