Supreme Court upholds NIWA as authentic regulatory authority on waterways

CITIZENS COMPASS —The Supreme Court of Nigeria has ruled in favour of the federal government and its inland waterways regulatory agency, the National Inland Waterways Authority NIWA.
With the judgement, the battle of who regulates all activities on Nigerian inland waterways between Lagos state government and the Federal Government has been laid to rest.
The judgement was delivered on Friday, January 5, 2024, in Abuja.
Delivering the judgment, Honourable Justice okoro, validated an earlier federal High Court ruling, FHC/CS/ 543/ 2012, which pronounced NIWA as the authentic authority over Nigerian inland waterways and advised Lagos State Government, its agencies and any other states in the country to stay away from regulatory activities on Nigerian inland waterways.
Justice Okoro held that any attempt to compete over regulatory and commercial functions with NIWA on Nigerian inland waterways will amount to pursuing resource control, which constitutionally rests with the federal government of Nigeria.