Senate may pass Maritime Security Agency Bill today

After several months of anxiety, there were confirmations yesterday that the controversial Maritime Security Agency (MASECA) Bill may be tabled for the third and final reading by the Senate today.
Sources close to the Senate Committee on Marine Transport confirmed that the MASECA Bill which seeks to create a distinct agency for maritime security may be the only one to be ‘favoured’ out of the four maritime industry Bills that are yet to be attended to by the lawmakers, even as they round-off activities of the sixth session of the National Assembly.

The four Bills that are pending are: Port and Harbour Bill, Chartered Institute of Shipping of Nigeria Bill, Maritime Zone Bill and the Maritime Security Agency Bill and the Nigerian Merchant Navy Security and Safety Corps Bill. An executive Bill that was tabled in late 2009 by the Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, the MASECA Bill was forwarded to the National Assembly by late President Umaru Yar’Adua as panacea to the unbridled recklessness in the Niger Delta and serial illegal bunkering and economic sabotage which the nation’s territorial water is being subjected to.
Sources at the National Assembly confirmed yesterday that the controversial Bill had been slated for the third and final debate at the plenary session today and that it is likely to be passed into law.

It had earlier been passed by the House of Representatives which approved all its provisions after an exhaustive public hearing in January 2010 which was put together by the House Committee on Marine Transport headed by Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. While passing the Bill which includes a provision that the head of the organisation would report to the President, through the National Security Adviser, (NSA), the lower legislature also approved the new agency would have its headquarters in Abuja.