Newly- appointed Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Mr. Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi has assured that the new administration of the agency will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that criminal activities no longer thrive on Nigerian waterways.
The Director General gave this assurance while welcoming visiting ‘Direct Short Service Course 19, Naval Cadets for Camp Ruwan Yaro’ to the corporate headquarters of the agency explained that the new management team of NIMASA has a clear mandate directly from the President to reduce the rate of pirate activities on Nigerian waters.
He acknowledged that for NIMASA to fulfill this mandate, there must be a sustainable relationship between NIMASA and the Navy, even as he stressed that the agency will not lose sight of this because the Navy is symbiotic to the success of the agency.
According to him, “NIMASA’s core obligation to secure and provide save waterways will come to nothing without the assistance and collaboration from the Navy, so the new leadership of NIMASA will not lose sight of that cardinal and very crucial aspect the Navy is going to give us, the navy too is going to be assisted to perform this core mandate when NIMASA collaborates with them”.
Speaking further Ziakede explained to the visiting 149 number of cadets led by Captain Abdul Biu Adamu that “we have a very clear mandate from the President to reduce criminality on our territorial waters to a zero level, a lot of things are happening in this country and so we must work together, bring law and order in the territorial waters to bring joy to the presidency and to the common Nigerians”.
He assured that NIMASA will assist the navy to resuscitate the naval dock yard situated in Apapa Lagos which is currently in a dilapidated condition and that the agency will also help put back in good condition the naval patrol boats that have broken down.
Ziakede also reflected on the current challenges facing NIMASA saying that currently there are no patrol boats to constantly comb the creeks and the territorial waters and acknowledged that this is why the pirates are gaining upper hand.
“If there is a pirate attack and the Navy wants to respond, it will not be possible if there are no boats, the criminals are getting more and more sophisticated and we need to be above them”, he stated.
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