The Worldwide Maritime Organisation (IMO), the specialised transport regulatory company of the United Nations, has counseled the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Security Company (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Navy for his or her effort in the direction of stemming piracy in its waters and within the Gulf of Guinea. IMO additionally counseled the brand new director-general of NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh, for his courageous and dynamic strategy to maritime se- curity following latest arrests and first-time prosecution of suspected pirates below the nation’s new anti-piracy legislation, in a letter addressed to the DG by IMO secretary-general, Kitack Lim.
Lim mentioned he was impressed by Nigeria’s efforts “to deal with maritime safety threats within the area,” including that Jamoh’s “management and proactive response” to maritime safety points was laudable. Jamoh had informed the IMO secretary-general at a earlier digital assembly following the arrest of some pirates by the Nigerian Navy, in partnership with NIMASA, that piracy within the area was being sustained by highly effective overseas collaborators. He appealed for help from the worldwide group to enhance the steps being taken by Nigeria.
“I might additionally prefer to reiterate my congratulations to the Nigerian Navy on the profitable seize and arrest of pirates from the fishing trawler, Hailufeng 11, and extra lately on the rescue of the crew members of the container ship, Tommi Ritscher,” Lim said within the letter. “These actions, along with all the opposite initiatives you highlighted in our assembly, together with progress with the Deep Blue Challenge, ship a robust and helpful message to the worldwide group with respect to the appreciable efforts your authorities is making to curb piracy and armed theft towards ships within the Gulf of Guinea.” Jamoh had throughout the digital assembly bemoaned the antagonistic impact of overseas collaboration on Nigeria’s antipiracy effort.
He mentioned, “The latest arrests of pirates have opened our eyes to a brand new and much more harmful dimension to the problem of piracy and armed theft in our waters, and that’s the situation of overseas collaboration. “The arrests concerned Nigerians and different nationals, whose identities I can’t disclose as a result of the circumstances are below investigation. Piracy is taking a global dimension. We now know that pirates and different maritime criminals in our waters and the Gulf of Guinea function with robust backing from highly effective worldwide collaborators.
“So we earnestly need the cooperation of the worldwide group, particular person international locations, organisations, and people to stem the ugly tide of insecurity in our waters. We’ll proceed to do our greatest and replace IMO as we make progress with our methods.” The IMO secretary-general reiterated the organisation’s readiness to help NIMASA within the coaching of non-public and technical help, and in addition declared his willingness to speak to different member international locations to help in that respect. He mentioned IMO would assist to take care of situation of synergy in legal guidelines relating to piracy with different neighbouring international locations. NIMASA had lately improved its collaboration with the Navy and different stakeholders in an effort to vary the ugly narrative of piracy and sea theft in its maritime area and the Gulf of Guinea. The brand new collaborative association includes info sharing between NIMASA’s Command, Management, Communication, Computer systems, and Intelligence Centre (C4i Centre} of the Deep Blue Challenge, which commenced operations on a 24 hour foundation since final 12 months, and the Nigerian Navy’s Falcon Eye to assist observe and fight prison parts within the nation’s maritime area.
The Deep Blue Challenge, also called the Built-in Nationwide Safety and Waterways Protec- tion Infrastructure, goals to comprehensively deal with insecurity on Nigeria’s territorial waters and Unique Financial Zone, as much as the Gulf of Guinea. On the again of the brand new partnership between NIMASA and the Navy, the nation has made document arrests of pirates, with some already dealing with prosecution.
The Nigerian Navy lately arrested a vessel, MFV Marine 707, which was engaged in unlawful fishing within the nation’s waters. Ten pirates who had on Might 15 attacked and boarded a Chinese language vessel, MV HAILUFANG II, off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire and directed it in the direction of Nigerian waters, had been additionally arrested by the Navy.
The Nigerian Navy had dispatched a ship to intercept the vessel after it obtained an alert. The 10 pirates had been handed over to NIMASA for prosecution, within the first trial of bandits arrested in worldwide waters below the Sup- pression of Piracy and Different Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act signed into legislation in June final 12 months by President Muhammadu Buhari. The legislation made Nigeria the primary in West and Central Africa to have a definite antipiracy laws.
Supply: leadership.ng
