The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, says the Nigerian army has successfully chased out pirates from the nation’s waters.
Irabor stated this at a briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Team specifically meant to update Nigerians on the issues of Security, Economy and Anti-Corruption Agenda of the Buhari administration.
The Gulf of Guinea had recorded 84 attempted and successful attacks by pirates in 2020, up from the 64 in 2019, but 82 incidents in 2018.
However, the CDS revealed that Nigeria recorded zero piracy within its waters since December 2020, saying the incidents recently reported occurred outside the exclusive right of the Nigerian waters.
He attributed the successes being recorded by the Nigerian army in checking the nefarious activities of pirates to new security measures put in place by relevant authorities.
“In the last three months or so, there had never been a single case of piracy recorded within Nigeria’s waters.
“All the cases reported were outside of the exclusive right of Nigerian waters and that’s because of the resilience of our maritime forces have led to those bad elements within the maritime domain to shift bases.
“So, I think what you do is perhaps to do more studies to that those incidents that we witnessed in the last three months were executed outside of Nigerian waters,’’ he said.
According to the CDS, the criminal gangs have assessed the Gulf of Guinea and decided to shift their activities from the Nigerian waters to other areas following their inability to contain with the nation maritime forces.
