Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Nigerian Navy Tuesday said it is working towards acquiring dedicated vessels to tackle illegal fishing in the country.
The Navy said it will be doing this in collaboration with the with the Federal Department of Fisheries as a result of rising cases of unregulated and unreported fishing activities on the nation’s maritime domain.
The Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas who disclosed this on the occasion of three days senior leadership symposium held in Lagos.
Ibas who was represented on the occasion by the Naval Chief of Policy and Plans, Rear Admiral Beegroy Ibe-Enwo, also expressed concerns over worsening security situation on the Gulf of Guinea.
But he said the Navy is collaborating with maritime stakeholders to address all security issues on the maritime domain.
He disclosed that 30 vessels were arrested by the Navy last year, showing an improvement to 37 and 45 arrests in 2016 and 2017.
According to him, the Navy had in December last year handed overt 247 cases to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for prosecution.
He said 51 of such cases have been prosecuted successfully.
“What is even more disturbing is that many of the activities associated with the evolving threat scenario are directed at the economic lifeline of both littoral and land-locked member states” Ibas said.
“In other words, the scourge of various forms of illegalities, such as sea robbery, piracy, crude oil theft, poaching, human and illicit trafficking of weapons and drugs among others constitute serious challenges to the development of all countries in our region”.
“In prosecuting these threatening factors, the periodic assessment of the efforts is a credible tool”.
Accordingly, the interrogation of the implementation level of the Yaoundé Code of Conduct, a major regional framework for maritime security, is unarguably overdue at over six years of existence.
“As maritime insecurity progressively assumes transnational character, trans-border cooperation increasingly becomes the sine qua non in the mitigation of illicit maritime activities.
“The NN also engages regularly with stakeholders and has taken measures to enhance law enforcement within the maritime domain. One positive outcome of such consultation is the launch of the Harmonised Standard Operating Procedures (HSOP) on Arrest, Detention and Prosecution of Vessels and Persons (HSOP AD&P) in Nigeria’s Maritime Environment in January 2017.
“Further to the launch, the NN constantly engages with the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF) on modalities for implementation while stakeholders meetings with private maritime logistic support companies and the oil and gas sub-sector are convened periodically.
“These engagements foster a shared vision on the accomplishment of maritime security tasks leading to the successful prosecution of 51 maritime crime related cases or about 20 per cent of the 247 cases which the NN handed over to prosecuting agencies such as EFCC and NSCDC as at December 2018.
“The NN’s seamless collaboration with related agencies has helped to create effective deterrence to criminals through the arrest and prosecution of various criminals.
“Within the past three years, over 80 errant vessels have been arrested for various acts of illegality. MT TECNE and MT NIPAL were caught in the act stealing crude oil from the crude oil loading facilities in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
“Suffice to state that the NN arrested a total of 30 vessels in 2018 for involvement in various forms of illegality in the nation’s maritime domain. This indicates on the face value a downward trend when compared with 37 and 45 arrests recorded in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
“These arrests have served as deterrence and helped to support a more buoyant national economy. For instance, NNPC data indicate that crude oil losses from pipelines reduced from N51.28 billion in 2015 to N4.17 billion in 2017” Ibas continued.
The training programme is being attended by naval forces of 31 countries, including 20 African navies and 11 foreign countries and hosted by the US Naval Forces Africa (US NAVAF).w