Navy moves to check criminals at sea

Philip Nwosu, Lagos

The Nigerian Navy said it will not relent in its efforts to check illegality within the country’s maritime domain and ensure that the country’s territorial waters are safe for lawful users to operate.

Maritime protection is part of the Navy’s transformation plan which aims at achieving and sustaining effective capacity for the force to carry out her statutory roles.

The plan, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, said serves as a linchpin to the overall role of the Navy and fulfills the overall objective of the transformation process in the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

Admiral Ibas spoke at the opening of the Nigerian Navy Transformation workshop in Lagos, saying that the accomplishment of these roles requires a robust force structure, adding that the Nigerian Navy Order of Battle (ORBAT) is continuously regenerating to have a balanced mix of capabilities necessary to meet current and emerging threats in the maritime domain.

The Chief of Naval Staff, who was represented by the Chief of Transformation, Rear Admiral Ifeola Mohammed, said he envisioned a Navy that would primarily defend Nigeria’s maritime interest in line with the constitutional goals and project force well beyond the Gulf of Guinea.

The Navy Chief said the force will continue to react to the emergence of new threats in the maritime environment in order to secure Nigeria’s economic prosperity.

“It is also expected that the workshop would equip you (officers) with the capability to respond to the rapidly changing situations on ground and in our work places,” he said.

“You must learn to adapt, be mission oriented and further develop good leadership attributes with the right organisational skills, so that the Nigerian Navy will continue to react successfully to the emergence of new threats.’’

The CNS said that the workshop was important in order for the service to develop new technologies in support of its mandate of safeguarding the country’s maritime environment.

He expressed confidence that the deliberations from the workshop would go a long way to enhance the mental acuity of the participants, which would enhance the overall operation of the Nigerian Navy.

Earlier, the Flag Officer Commanding (FOC), Naval Training Command, Rear Admiral Stanford Enoch, said that members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria are currently engaged in internal security operations against insurgents across the country’s 36 states, adding that, “operations are carried out in theatres of dynamic landscape that require strategic planning and thinking to outmaneuver these insurgents.”