Piracy and sea robbery activities are currently on the rise around Calabar waters, even as sources have hinted that vessels navigating within Calabar Rivers, around 40 nautical miles from the Fairway Buoy up to Calabar Port have been operating in fear of being attacked.
Sources in Calabar port confirmed to Shipping Position Daily last week that reports of attacks on vessels and boats around the port have increased recently.
Piracy and sea robbery activities are currently on the rise around Calabar waters, even as sources have hinted that vessels navigating within Calabar Rivers, around 40 nautical miles from the Fairway Buoy up to Calabar Port have been operating in fear of being attacked.
Sources in Calabar port confirmed to Shipping Position Daily last week that reports of attacks on vessels and boats around the port have increased recently.
According to them, there are several islands along the channel leading to the port and this has served as a hideout for militants to carry out their illegal operations on the water.
Our correspondent gathered that the development has also led to many of the boat operators hiking their fares because they usually operate under a high level of risk.
"The problem with the passage is that there are several islands around our waters- parrot island, snake island, and militants are hiding there, you cannot believe that even ordinary boats crossing the island have increased their fares because of pirate activities", a source disclosed last week.
A boat operator, Mr. Ime Obong explained in a chat with Shipping Position Daily that boat operators have been operating under great fear.
According to him, prior to the increased attacks, "we usually collect between N400 and N500, but now we charge N1, 500 from each passenger before we can go up towards Calabar River".
Obong said that boat operators are sometimes forced to settle the pirates out of the money collected from the passengers.
"Going towards Calabar is deeper and we cannot go towards it, it is dangerous going through Calabar River" he confirmed.
Another source also confirmed last week that: "Ships have been getting attacks very often, anytime they are coming into Calabar Rivers which is like 40nautical miles from the fairway bouy up to Calabar Port"
Our source who spoke under anonymity stated that Nigerian waters have not yet attained a satisfactory level in terms of security.
"I will only give Nigeria 50 percent, despite the fact that NIMASA has taken measures, you must have been following recently that they arrest oil tankers and handed them over to the EFCC, something is wrong somewhere because for one reason or the other nobody has been prosecuted", he said.
"NIMASA is struggling but at the same time there are people sponsoring these pirates, it is not that we cannot fight the problems, but there are certain individuals profiting from this act"
"In terms of curbing incidences of piracy we have a lot of work to do, NIMASA decided to involve the private sector through the PPP with an organization called Global West, if we are to tackle this thing we need to involve the private sector"
"Only 50 percent of our waters can be considered safe, every day I receive messages of piracy reports here" he confirmed.
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