The seized ship at the Tin Can Island Port, Apapa, Lagos on Thursday Photo: The Punch

The Head of Public Relations, Nigerian Ports Authority, Mr. Musa Ilya, said the ship, operated by American President Lines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines, arrived the country on Wednesday evening

Ilya spoke with journalists just as the Director-General of the National Environmental Standards Regulatory and Enforcement Agency, Dr. Ngeri Benebo, disclosed that the National Security Adviser, Lt.-Gen. Aliyu Gusau; the Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey; and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Segun Aganga, were aware that the ship had arrived in Nigeria.

The NPA spokesman said, ”The ship has not discharged; it is currently under detention. Relevant agencies are collaborating to determine the actual content of the container and they will take necessary measures.”

The agencies involved in the detention of the ship are the NPA, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agencies, the National Intelligence Agency, State Security Service and the Nigeria Customs Service.

Authorities in Netherlands where the vessel had sailed from, had said that it was carrying among other things, 70 storage (lead) batteries classified as Basel-code A1180 and broken televisions.

Products classified as code A1180 under the Basel Convention on the Control of Trans boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal include electrical waste and electronic assemblies or scrap containing components such as accumulators and other batteries, mercury-switches, glass from cathode-ray tubes and other activated glass and PCB-capacitors, contaminated with constituents such as cadmium, mercury, lead, polychlorinated biphenyl.

These hazardous wastes are said to be responsible for a wide range of abnormal health conditions, including congenital heart diseases, cancer, and leukemia.

Nigeria is a signatory to the Basel Convention.

But a source claimed that the manifest found in the vessel showed that it was carrying a vehicle, microwave ovens, pressing irons, vehicle parts, television sets, children‘s clothes, tomatoes cans, dishes and a cargo lift.

The Head of Public Relations of the NCS, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, however, said on Thursday evening that the content of the vessel would be examined today.

Speaking with our correspondent also on Thursday, Benebo confirmed that the ship’s manifest had been seen.

She added that she personally informed Odey of the vessel’s presence in Nigeria.

Benebo said, ”I can confirm that the ship was sighted in our territorial waters last night but it berthed this morning at the Tin Can Island Port.

“But before the arrival of the ship, I had informed the Minister of Environment, who also informed the NSA and the Minister of Finance who is in charge of the Customs. Our officers are on the ground. We have seen the ship and the manifest. I am Lagos to take a decisive decision on the issue”

According to media report, an alert on the vessel was conveyed by Mr. Paul de Boer, Co-operator of the National Incident Room of The Netherlands.

The report says a container in the ship marked UESU463595-0 would have been confiscated in Rotterdam, but that it slipped through in spite of the checks.

Boer urged Nigerian authorities to track the said container so that an arrangement could be made for its return to Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

He informed authorities that the sender of the consignments is one Vivian Syn of Jahnstrasse 37, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria while the receiver had been identified as a Lagos-based company.