Nigeria Content Online

The National Environmental Standard and
Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) says it has accosted five ships
bringing toxic waste into the country this year.

Spokesperson for the agency, Sule
Oyofo, told the News Agency of Nigeria, in Lagos on Saturday, that four
of the ships had been turned back. He said that the last attempt was on
October 5, when the MV Vera D brought two containers of toxic waste to
the Tin-Can Island Port in Lagos. According to him, the ship came from
the UK. He said that upon inspection, by a joint team of the agency
officials and staff of the National Toxic Dump Watch Committee, it was
discovered that two containers on the ship contained toxic waste.

Mr Oyofo said that the items found
inside the containers confirmed the fears of some foreign partners of
NESREA who sent the alert on the ship’s movement. He said that the some
of items included used refrigerators, black and white television sets,
computer monitors and compressors. He said that the items were
prohibited under the Nigerian Harmful Waste Act and the Basel
Convention Treaty on Trans-boundary Movement.

Mr Oyofo said that efforts were being made to return the consignment
back to its port of origin. NAN, however, reports that the shipper,
Grimaldi Shipping Line, has denied the allegation that the ship carried
toxic waste. A source at the shipping agency rejected the allegation
and stressed that toxic substances could not be determined via visual
observation. He said that the fact that NESREA was a government agency
did not confer on it absolute competence to make such allegations.