Supreme Court of Nigeria has awarded the exclusive responsibility to regulate the inland waterways to the Federal Government, represented by National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).
The apex court ruling on Friday, January 5, ends the legal fireworks on the lingering dispute between the Federal Government and Lagos State Government over the appropriate authority to supervise activities on the inland waterways across the country. A copy of the judgment was sent by the management of NIWA to The Guardian yesterday.
In the Supreme Court judgment, Justice John Inyang Okoro validated an earlier Federal High Court ruling, FHC/CS/ 543/ 2012, which pronounced NIWA as the authentic authority over Nigerian inland waterways.
The judge warned Lagos State Government and its agencies, as well as other states in the country, to stay away from regulatory activities on the nation’s inland waterways.
Justice Okoro held that any attempt to compete over regulatory and commercial functions with NIWA on the nation’s inland waterways, would amount to pursuing resource control, which constitutionally rests with the Federal Government.
Recall that the feud between NIWA and Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) has lasted for years on who has control and regulates the inland waterways.
While NIWA claims that only the Federal Government could regulate inland waterways, shipping, navigation and dredging activities within the nation’s waterways and its rights-of-way according to the NIWA Act, LASWA argued that the powers of NIWA to control the rights-of-way 100 metres from the river bank, had been overtaken by the Land Use Act, which had vested control of all land in a state on the state governor.
