Navy shuts down ‘illegal’ maritime academy, arrests proprietor

The Captain of the Nigerian Navy Ship Jubilee in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, has closed down an illegal maritime institution, and arrested four persons including the proprietor. It was gathered that the activities of Merchant Seaman Academy, located in Essien Udim Local Government Area, had been stopped in 2013 but resumed in 2016. The […]

The Captain of the Nigerian Navy Ship Jubilee in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, has closed down an illegal maritime institution, and arrested four persons including the proprietor.

It was gathered that the activities of Merchant Seaman Academy, located in Essien Udim Local Government Area, had been stopped in 2013 but resumed in 2016. The proprietor, Adams Pius was said to be using the facility to defraud innocent Nigerian youths seeking admission into tertiary institutions through the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.

The Executive Officer of the NNS Jubilee, Captain Suleiman Ibrahim, said during the raid of the facility, the activities of the institution and similar ones across the country had been proscribed by then President Goodluck Jonathan as they did not have the capacity to train merchant navy.

He said NNS Jubilee also handed all the four suspects and 19 students, consisting of 17 males and two females to the Divisional Police Officer of the area.

The proprietor, Pius, 46, said his passion to run the academy as a mono-technic for the training of young Nigerians in shipping and security management technology, led him to set up the school.

He said all the programmes of the academy had been fully accredited. “I have the accreditation certificate. The students passed through JAMB to gain admission into the academy. We don’t send text messages to students through fraudulent means as alleged.

“We go into the Central Admission Processing System, and once a person gets admission from the CAPS, JAMB will send the names of those students to the portal, it is then the students will contact the school for admission,” he claimed.

One of the students, Anieto Ugonna Solomon, from Oguata in Anambra State, told our correspondent that he applied to JAMB which sent him to the school through a text message.

He lamented that he did not know how he got admission into the MSA through JAMB, noting that he was only aware of the school through the SMS which he thought emanated from JAMB.

Another student, Olim Joseph, from Ogoja, Cross River State, said he had been in the school for the past two years studying Marine Engineering.

“The fees depend on the voyage. Those students who are for the first voyage pay N191,000 and those who are in their second voyage pay N150,000. A voyage lasts for four months,” he said.

Observations by our correspondent showed that there was no pond, stream, river, or sea around the school. The school is situated in the bush, about a kilometre from the community. It was also observed that two students were paired in a room without door or windows.

Some of the students told our correspondent that they often found snakes in the classrooms and the school premises.