The director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi, has disclosed that the agency and similar agencies within the Gulf of Guinea were in talks for strategic cooperation over the issue of piracy and other criminal activities at sea in the region.
The NIMASA boss, who disclosed this in an opening remark to flag off the agency’s 4th Strategic Admiralty Law Seminar for Judges in Lagos last week, reiterated the agency’s commitment to fighting sea crimes in the country’s waters.
The director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Mr. Patrick Ziakede Akpobolokemi, has disclosed that the agency and similar agencies within the Gulf of Guinea were in talks for strategic cooperation over the issue of piracy and other criminal activities at sea in the region.
The NIMASA boss, who disclosed this in an opening remark to flag off the agency’s 4th Strategic Admiralty Law Seminar for Judges in Lagos last week, reiterated the agency’s commitment to fighting sea crimes in the country’s waters.
While thanking the judiciary for its “good support,” Mr Akpobolokemi reminded the judges that much more was needed to be done to empower the agency with powers to prosecute pirates and other sea criminals.
Baring the agency’s legal handicap, the NIMASA DG said that “we have arrested many pirates, oil thieves and vessels and none of them have been prosecuted and convicted is an indication that we desperately need the judiciary. Criminals here confess without duress and implicate big names and next time they are back again into the crime.”
He said, “When my administration started, not even a Yamaha 45 Engine boat was seen in NIMASA; piracy had assumed a very worrisome dimension and there was no capacity to confront the pirates. The challenges were there, but we took the bull by the horn. We provided five boats and confronted them until they found a new haven in Cotonou.
“Then we had to liaise with the Republic of Benin and I can confidently state that the success in Cotonou is over 90 per cent, to the extent that even the President of the Republic of Benin attested to it. We are now talking on how to come together and cooperate to eliminate the menace in the Gulf countries.”
He further disclosed that the agency had acquired six state-of the-art vessels and that by January, another six motherships would arrive.
Stressing that “so much oil is siphoned in the waters,” the NIMASA boss assured, “Call us 120 nautical miles we will be there. We have fought the syndicate in piracy; many tank farms and filling stations have been sealed so far. If illegality in our waters is quelled I can tell you that 50 per cent of corruption in the country would have been eliminated.”
He added, “We are also working in entrenching a workable legal framework to prosecute crime in our waters and that will be before the National Assembly soon. We are unequivocally committed to developing the maritime industry and we are continuously developing our in-house capacity. We are committed to securing the maritime domain and ridding it of illegal acts. We have been misunderstood in some quarters but we remain resolute that time vindicate us.”
Noting that the four pillars upon which the nation Cabotage Law was built were unattainable, he however said much was being done by the agency to ensure that law works. Such efforts he noted were shipyard being built by NIMASA and the cabotage financing fund.
“If we build our maritime well, thousands of jobs will created. We need social and economic initiatives to solve our security problems rather than use of police and the military. The maritime sector is capable of doing much more for this country and its people.”
Speaking on the agency’s initiative in maritime capacity development for Nigerians, he said, “Over 1000 citizens are leaving Nigeria for maritime education in various parts of the world, with NIMASA sponsoring them 100 per cent. Instead of keeping our monies in the bank idling, we are investing them in capacity development and now over 600 young people are leaving for oversea trainings in maritime by next month.
“We have as well chosen four universities here in Nigeria for maritime training and NIMASA is sponsoring them. We are making efforts at building a maritime university to be commissioned in the next few years.”
Earlier, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, assured NIMASA of the judiciary’s support, noting that maritime remained the backbone of economies of countries.
“The maritime sector could give revenue a hundred times more than oil if government could develop it. Singapore derives 90 per cent of its revenue from the ports.
“The coastal area is another area for tourism and business. It is only in Nigeria that such areas have become a dumping ground for all manner of rubbish. Even in the Gambia, all coastal areas are for business and tourism.
“We need sincere leadership. It now seems NIMASA is going back to its original mandate and not limiting itself anymore to just a contract-awarding agency. We hear about arrest of oil thieves in our waters and big names have also been mentioned in connection with the menace,” he said.
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