Nigerian seafarers under the aegis of Merchant Navy Directorate have alleged that government agencies were gagging seafarers from reporting incidences of pirate attacks on vessels, even as it alleged that the number of attacks on Nigerian waters so far in 2018 has soared up to 42 cases.
Secretary General of the directorate, Capt Alfred Oniye in a chat with Shipping Position Daily alleged that attacks happen regularly at sea, but hinted that seafarers are scared to report such cases.
He claimed that any seafarer who reports such cases is always victimized and ends up losing his job onboard the ship.
Speaking further on the attacks, he said "I will give you an analysis, as at last week, we have recorded 42 cases of attacks in this year alone, you don't hear about it because the agencies have told seafarers not to report attacks anymore, they believe it is tarnishing their image, and when seafarers report such an attack, they become a victim, they put eyes on them, so right now, vessels cannot even report attacks anymore, this is now the game on ground"
"These 42 cases are the reported ones, what about the unreported cases? We are currently working on the analysis because we know that the figure is more than 42", he said.
Capt Oniye argued that there is no other solution to curbing insecurity on Nigerian waters than to have another body that will take care of the inland waterways security. He said that the Nigerian territorial waters is open to pirates.
He alleged that those opposing the Maritime Security Agency (MASECA) Bill at the House of Representatives are doing so for their personal interest.
"Those who are supposed to be covering our territorial waters (Nigerian Navy) have abandoned the place; they are only focusing on inland waterways. The inland waterways have about 6,000 creeks and they could only cover 37 which is in the Niger Delta, if your child scores 37 over 6,000 is that not a failure? And we are saying that we don't need a security outfit for inland waterways"
"Our territorial waters is open, sea pirates come into our territorial waters easily, they operate easily and they leave because nobody stops them, those who are supposed to be on the territorial waters have fall back"
"Those who spoke against the MASECA Bill are all NIMASA contractors protecting their masters and their port of soup. The same NIMASA that says that the MASECA is not necessary, the Minister of Transportation is contracting the same job to an Israeli firm at $195million, this same job is what Nigerians want to do at no cost to the government and generate jobs for the seafarers and revenue for the government", he said.
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