Reps C’tte lauds Nigerian Navy, seeks more funding for military

Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

House of Representatives Committee on the Nigeria Navy has commended the Central Navy Command (CNC) of the Nigeria Navy, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, for its professionalism, discipline and prudent management of resources.

The Chairman, Yusuf Gagdi, who led other  members of the committee to the command headquarters as part of its oversight function to the CNC, said the Nigerian Navy has done incredibly well despite the little resources available.

Speaking shortly after the committee was conducted round facilities at headquarters, Gagdi decried the lack of infrastructure development in the command and said the Navy need all the necessary tools to function optimally.

“Navy has done incredibly well, we don’t hide this and we say it whenever we find ourselves. In term of the little resources made available to you the quality of the projects is highly commendable.

“But, going round the Central Naval Command, particularly the headquarters, the base here, I am flabbergasted by the numbers of issues they have here, with the one I have seen physically.

“This is a command with the least number of facilities and the issue of accommodation has been coming up in the last two years to this moment. The nature of the environment requires a lot of capital allocation to sand fill the environment before roads are constructed,” he said.

According to him, the responsibility of the government and the Navy is to protect the lives and property of its citizen and to ensure the territorial integrity of the country is properly safeguard.

Flag Officer Commanding (FOC) the Central Naval Command, Real Admiral Shehu Garba, said the CNC, under his command, has been able to slow down the level of criminality in the Niger Delta.

He said: “I wish to state that with the fluidity of the happenings in the nation’s maritime environment, the Central Naval Command, which was established in 2012, has continue to slow down all maritime ills by conducting rigorous routine naval operations and mounting dedicated operations to meet specific mandates.

“As the youngest command with the youngest bases, much work has also been done to improve on the operational efficiency and welfare of naval personnel in the area which you will soon be brief on.”