Do you agree that piracy and sea robbery attacks have reduced?

Capt Adewale Ishola (Master Mariner)
I am of the opinion that piracy and sea robbery attacks have reduced tremendously on our waterways, I would say that NIMASA is doing a lot of work, nowadays the level of surveillance that NIMASA carries out even right in their office is very huge, they have all these radars working, so there is no hiding place for pirates.
Galtima Liman (Maritime Consultant)
Piracy has reduced and it is the consequence of the strong ?position that President Muhammadu Buhari has taken on oil bunkering and illegal oil activities, it was like a field day during the last administration, the pirates were basically interested in what was going on the oil and gas sector, particularly the crude oil export, there was a lot of black market activities. It was supported by the official corruption that was part of the system, but now since the top man has declared war against illegal activities and corruption in the petroleum sector, there have been changes. Another thing is the synergy with the Nigerian Navy, the Navy going back into the franchise with NIMASA, all these have helped to reduce the piracy level. However it is not mainly because of the NIMASA and Navy partnership, there is a lot of money being made from the illegal crude oil transactions that were going on, pirates were also aware that the leaders were partaking in it, so nobody could report anybody. But now that the game is up everyone has ran away. When you are an official and you are engaged in a criminal activity, you will not be able to enforce, when there is crime on top, the pirates will partake in it, but now that the system is sanitized, the criminals are very wise, they don't want to get caught.

Major Henry Ajetunmobi (Rtd) (Nigerian Ports Consultative Council?)
From IMB records, our Gulf of Guinea is still the most notorious these days, it is a big concern to any nationalist because it is giving Nigeria and her maritime sector a very bad name, the records are there, we are not talking about just piracy but also violence to ships, we tie everything down to the porous nature of our borders as well as the high level of unemployment in the coastal states. The situation is still present today, it has to do with law enforcement, security and patrol operations, the efficiency of our security policies, if we are able to tie some of these loose ends, we would be able to make a turn around.

Capt Niyi Dada Labinjo (President, NISA)
Piracy and sea robbery have gone down, it is not as rampant as it used to be, the reduction is as a result of the effectiveness of the Nigerian Navy, this is the only thing you can associate with it, any other reason will not be correct, ordinarily and constitutionally the Navy has a role to support NIMASA, so if they are doing anything in support of NIMASA, it is not special, Navy doing anything in support of Nigeria on the waters is not an unusual thing, and whatever they do either in support of Customs, the Police, NIMASA, Immigration or NDLEA?, it is nothing unusual, it is part of their constitutional responsibility.

Amos Pam Rangai (Seaman)
It is obvious that the government is winning the war against sea robbery and piracy. Because the rate at which we used to experience attack on ships within our domain has reduced drastically. I believe the memorandum of understanding between Navy and NIMASA has been effective in the last one year. Tankers and trawlers are sailing peacefully in Nigerian waters without stress or threat; we are doing our respective merchant navy business without fear and we are glad that the presence of the Navy and NIMASA on our coast is paying off. We now noticed that they patrol the waters constantly and also we want them to do more in that regards because if they should go to bed, those bad guys at sea may strike again but however it is relatively peaceful at sea as we speak.

Ajao Lateef (Merchant Navy)
I think NIMASA is doing its best in that effect collaboration with the Navy , Air Force and other, but their best is not good enough because they fail to bring in people who have the wherewithal to do the job. I think if the NIMASA can engage the merchant navy union it will go a long way to put a stop to sea robbery. We are competent enough to assist the navy and other security agencies by way setting up task force to combat sea robbery however, the rate at which trawlers are attacked, along with tankers has reduced.

Reginard Onyenobi (Marine Engineer)
I will state categorically that NIMASA, Navy , Air Force and other security agencies are winning the war against bandits at sea, most especially since the present administration won the election. I think they are winning at the moment because unlike before, where the agencies lack direction because the navy doesn’t really know whom to work with; whether it’s the Global West Vessel Specialist or NIMASA officials who are also involved but I know for a fact that before now the private outfit cannot do it alone. But since that contract has been suspended by government, I think they are getting it right at the moment. But the truth is attack at sea has reduced.

Anonymous
It is a known fact that the government agencies are doing their best to ensure that sea robbery is quashed, but the truth is that there is need to sustain what they have achieved at this time. We also learnt that they are also working on how to deploy drones into our maritime space which I believe will boost security and safety at sea. However government should focus on the industry for safety of crews and ships plying our waters.