Global piracy reporting body; the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has released its third quarter 2017 report, in which it submitted that maritime crimes are still prevalent within and off the coast of Nigeria.
The IMB in the statement which was made public yesterday reported that, 121 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships were recorded in the first nine months of 2017.
According to the body, in total, 92 vessels were boarded, while 13 were fired on, there were 11 attempted attacks and five vessels were hijacked in the first nine months of 2017.
Justifying its rating of Nigeria as a hotbed for piracy, it says that the country “remains risky, as there were 20 reports received against all vessel types for Nigeria, 16 of which occurred off the coast of Brass, Bonny and Bayelsa”, alone.
It added that: “Guns were reportedly used in 18 of the incidents and vessels were underway in 17 of 20 reports. 39 of the 49 crewmembers kidnapped globally occurred off Nigerian waters in seven separate incidents. Other crew kidnappings in 2017 have been reported 60 nautical miles off the coast of Nigeria.
Summing it up, Director of IMB; Pottengal Mukundan said: “In general, all waters in and off Nigeria remain risky, despite intervention in some cases by the Nigerian Navy. We advise vessels to be vigilant”.
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