The Nigerian Maritime Adminstration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has concluded arrangement for 289 cadets to proceed to Egypt and the United Kingdom between this month and January 2018 for seatime training in Ocean going vessels.
Director-General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside, who spoke on the sideline of the G7++ group summit held in Lagos on Monday explained that out of the figure, 200 cadets are to experience their seatime in Egypt while 87 others are expected in the United Kingdom.
He assured that the Agency is working with Stakeholders and the global maritime community to ensure that the menace of piracy is totally stamped out in the Gulf of Guinea in order to allow for free flow of trade in the region.
According to the DG, this is the first time that the summit is held outside Europe, noting that they believe in the country’s efforts to fight piracy and other criminal activities in the Nigeria and in the Gulf of Guinea.
He also stated that since Nigeria has been given the leadership role to curtail criminal activities in the region, the Agency has continued to collaborate with the relevant authorities, both locally and internationally to put an end to the issues surrounding piracy in the region.
Speaking further, Dr. Peterside noted that NIMASA has also gone a step further to tackle piracy from four broad approaches namely; Legal framework through an anti-piracy bill, which will soon be passed to law, thereby making Nigeria the first country in the whole of Africa to formulate such policy.
Others are; acquisition of military hardware, through partnership with an Israeli firm, which will enhance our response capabilities to criminal activities, enhancing our intelligence gathering system and regional integration and collaboration through working with other African countries.
In his words, “No piracy begins and ends in one jurisdiction; when there is a hot pursuit, they shift to another region, and on our part, we are determined to give them a hot chase through our partnership and other collaboration with other countries in the region”.
The G7++ Friends of Gulf of Guinea Group is headed by the Italian government and it is poised to ensure sustainable interest in the promotion of peace, security and development in the Gulf of Guinea.