Son of the Executive Secretary/ CEO of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr. Adamu-Biu Ahmadu was one of the 10 winners at this year's Ships and Ports Essay Competition tagged The 2nd Ships and Ports Annual National Essay Competition.

At the impressive and well attended prize presentation ceremony in Lagos penultimate Thursday, the young Ahmadu won the Genesis Worldwide Shipping Prize for Outstanding Essay alongside Airadion Phidelix Friday but the star prize of the competition, Dangote Port Operation Prize for Best Overall Essay was won by Mr. Adewale Opeyemi, a Masters degree student of Archaeology at the Federal University of Technology, Minna Niger State.

The prize presentation ceremony, chaired by Chairman of Indigenous Shipowners Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Chief Isaac Jolapamo also had maritime industry bigwigs such as Princess Vicky Haastrup of ENL Consortium, Captain Joshua Oyewumi of Dangote Port Operation and Dr. Ken Fashola of Intels Nigeria Limited in attendance.

Chief Executive Officer of Ships and Ports Communication Company, Mr. Bolaji Akinola in his welcome address, disclosed that the Essay Competition was designed "to encourage Nigerians to think aloud about the maritime sector and to revive and sustain vivid, contentious and creative essay writing about the sector.

"The enormous interest the maiden edition generated among Nigerians and Industry Stakeholders was the stamp of approval we needed to institutionalise the competition," Akinola stated.

The Ships and Ports boss disclosed that his company had concluded plans to organise the maiden edition of the Ships and Ports Soccer Challenge created to foster cordial relationship and to revive the spirit of sportsmanship in the maritime sector.

"In the first quarter of next year, we shall commence a football competition among the various organisations in the maritime sector. This is to foster a cordial relationship among operators and to also rekindle the spirit of sportsmanship," Akinola stated.

A special presentation on the theme of the essay competition, Smuggling and the Nigerian Economy was made by Mr Rasheed Taiwo, Controller of the Federal Operations Unit Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service.

Taiwo who was represented by the Deputy Comptroller in charge of operations, Mr. T.J. Sambo described smuggling as an act of economic sabotage.

He said smuggling was capable of ruining the nation's economy and that it threatened the nation's security if not curtailed. To this end, he said his unit had been carrying the battle to the doorsteps of smugglers.