The Nigerian Navy has called for stronger synergy among the Gulf of Guinea nations in arresting criminals across member countries’ territorial waters.
The Flag Officer Commanding, Eastern Naval Command, Rear Adm. Matthew Emuekpere, made the call on Thursday in Lagos at the end of Exercise Obangame Express 2018, attended by 26 countries.
Four Nigerian naval ships – Okpabana, Unity, Sagbama, Karaduwa and two helicopters, participated in the weeklong exercise which started on March 22.
“One area I will also want us to cooperate more is that member-countries’ assets by way of ships and aircraft should have the liberty to fly into other countries, particularly if a real life situation should occur.
“For instance, the incident that happened off the coast of Togo, if we were the navy pursuing the hijacked vessel, we should be able to sail up to Togo to carry out the arrest.
“This is one area we need to iron out for future exercises,” the naval chief said.
The FOC said one of the objectives of the exercise was to foster cooperation among states of the Gulf of Guinea and combat illegalities in the maritime domain.
“The interesting thing is that during the conduct of the exercise, three live scenarios happened which we were able to deter the attack.
“We were able to deter the attack which happened at Okori Oil Field, Agbara Oil Field and the hijacked vessel off Togolese waters.
“The ship that was involved in hijack was arrested by the Ghanaian Navy while the mother ship was arrested in Benin Republic,” he said.
The exercise took place within the Eastern, Central and Western Naval Command where different mock operations were conducted at sea.
The Nigerian Navy and other maritime forces in the GOG, Europe, USA and other regional and international organisations participated in the eight-day exercise.
Among the countries that participated in the 8-day exercise were USA, UK, Spain, Turkey, Denmark, Portugal, Gabon, Congo, Liberia, Morocco, Canada, Sao Tome and Principe.
Others were Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Italy, Benin Republic, Angola, Brazil, France, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Ghana, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire.
During the exercise, there were mock operations where a hijacked ship, MV UNITY, was rescued by the Special Boat Service (SBS) team with no casualty.
Another mock operation was how an SBS team recovered illegal weapons on board a French naval ship codenamed MV ROFAWA.
Other exercises conducted were counter illicit trafficking, search and rescue, counter-piracy and energy security, air operations, communication drills, regional information sharing and anti-illegal fishing.
Also, the exercise featured tactical maneuvering, vessel boarding search and seizure, fire drills and vessel practice fire simulations.
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