The Supreme Court has made a ruling stating that the Federal Government has complete control over all waterways in the country.
This includes the authority to impose fees and issue licences to operators in the sector.
The court declared that any attempts by states to regulate the sector and impose fees on businesses operating in the nation’s inland waterways are incorrect and illegal.
The court held that states do not have the constitutional right to impose fees on these businesses.
The appeal was filed by the National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, the Nigerian Maritime Standard and Safety Agency, NMSSA, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, and the Minister of Transport.
According to the Supreme Court, the current legal framework gives exclusive control over activities in the nation’s inland waterways to the Nigerian Government. This control is carried out through two agencies: the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and the Nigerian Maritime Standard and Safety Agency (NIMASSA). Other levels of government are not involved in this control.
In 2018, an appeal was filed, and a team of lawyers, led by Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who is now the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, prosecuted the case for the appellants.
The Supreme Court agreed with Fagbemi’s argument that only NIWA has the responsibility to levy, impose, and charge utilization rates on the declared waters of the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority.
It stressed that “NIWA is the rightful and legal agency of the Federal Government with the powers to exclusively manage, direct, and control all activities on the navigable waters and its right of way throughout the country for inland navigation, under Sections 8 and 9 of NIWA Act.”
