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By Steve Agbota, [email protected] 08033302331
Nigeria has began to gain international recognition from its efforts to fight piracy and other maritime crimes in its territorial waters up to the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).
This is even as experts are of the opinion that the anti-piracy war must be sustained for the nation’s shipping development to be able to generate $12 billion annually and millions of employment.
Over the years, the international community had described Nigerian waters as one of the most dangerous in the world. Nigerian waters was always comparison with Somalian waters considering there was hardly any report of pirate attacks and sea robbery in a month without Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea being mentioned.
At a stage, any time there was an attack in the Gulf of Guinea, it would be linked to Nigerian waters because of its popularity among the shipping nations and it closeness to Gulf of Guinea.
To change the narrative, in 2019, the Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Offences (SPOMO) Act came into law. This Act provides the legal teeth for the war against piracy in the Nigerian maritime environment – a war that assumes new dimensions by the day, with increasing sophistication and with which conviction of offenders have been secured.
The further zeal to keep nation’s maritime space secured, promote socio-economic development and leaving no stone unturned, led to the launch of the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure popularly referred to as the Deep Blue Project.
The project consists of sophisticated naval, aerial and land arsenal manned by highly trained and well-motivated professionals along the Gulf of Guinea and on the high seas to tame piracy and secure human lives.
Due to massive investment in the maritime security architecture, Nigeria has recorded cases of piracy and sea robbery attacks in the recent times. This has also made the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) exited Nigeria from piracy record list, the reason why the feast must be sustained.
Recently, The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Bashir Jamoh ascribed the decline of piracy on Nigerian waters and the Gulf of Guinea to collaboration among various organs of Government in Nigeria, Governments in the region and stakeholders from within and outside the country. He noted that the success in fighting piracy in Nigeria is a combination of many factors, which has seen the entire gamut of security architecture working together to achieve a common goal.
“Our joy is that Nigeria has exited the piracy list and the progress is steady. No single organization can lay total claim for the success. The Presidency is playing a major role by providing direction, the Armed forces are playing their role as enshrined in the constitution, and NIMASA is playing its role by being an effective Maritime Administration with the Deep Blue Project as a focal tool. The National Assembly who gave us the SPOMO Act and the Judiciary who have now ensured maritime crimes are punished in Nigeria should also get credit”, he said.
Dr Jamoh also acknowledged the support from the international maritime stakeholders as key to the success in the fight against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea”.
According to him, the international conglomerates, including the major oil marketers, International Tanker owners, INTERTANKO, and the International Cargo Owners, INTERCARGO amongst others who are part of the joint industry-working group, which has now metamorphosed into the SHADE Gulf of Guinea, also deserve some credit.
Furthermore, the NIMASA helmsman disclosed that two of the Agency’s Global Maritime Distress Safety System (GMDSS), located at the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, (RMRCC) in Kirikiri Lagos and Takwa Bay are now fully functional. ”We have greatly enhanced the safety of navigation of vessels on our waters, every vessel within the Nigerian territorial waters and even beyond can easily access our GMDSS. The ones in Takwa Bay and Kirikiri are now fully functional, while the other three stations located in Oron, Bonny and Escravos are almost ready to commence full operations.
“These are some gaps identified in the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency by the IMO during its last IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS) and we are closing these gaps,” he said.
Commenting on the Suppression of Piracy and other Maritime Related Offences SPOMO Act, which now serves as a model for other countries in the region, Dr Jamoh noted the need for harmonization of laws to ensure uniformity of purpose in prosecuting maritime offences within the region.
“Other countries in our region are now in the process of enacting laws similar to our SPOMO Act. This is the time for us to ensure harmonized Maritime Laws in the Gulf of Guinea to ensure criminalities in the maritime sector are prosecuted easily within the region, thus no safe haven for criminals in the region,” he said.
Jamoh also noted that NIMASA decided to engage the Naval Dockyard to repair the Agency’s patrol boats as part of efforts to deepen inter-Agency collaboration with the Nigerian Navy.
Meanwhile, at a recent during 2nd Nigerian Admiralty Law Colloquium, Jamoh said on the importance of the Deep Blue project, the agency has also leaned heavily on the limitless resources of information technology to integrate its security operations to provide stability to a singular non-oil sector that sustains the Nigerian economy.
“This is important because the development of shipping has the capacity to generate over $12billion annually and millions of jobs. I am delighted to inform you that these interventions by the Agency are being recognized. Even the respected International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has acknowledged our efforts and commended Nigeria’s progress in her quest for security in the Gulf of Guinea in its reports.
“I thank the judiciary for the unprecedented support NIMASA has received in especially realising the impact of the SPOMO Act. The recorded convictions of criminals and their sentencing between 2021 and today has sent a clear message to all would-be practitioners of piracy and sea criminality that Nigerian waters will never again be a safe haven for them. “They now know that if they do the crime they will serve the time. These victories in the courts have rippled across the waters to help reduce piracy to a 27-year low. Additionally, Nigeria has become the judicial benchmark for the entire Gulf of Guinea in Admiralty matters as other member countries are now using the SPOMO Act as their model,” he said.
Also speaking, Director General of Nigerian institute of Advanced Legal Stucies (NIALS), Professor Muhammad Tawfiq Ladan said that piracy issues have gone down tremendously in the Gulf of Guinea in 2021.
“| am happy to report that two years after the coming into force of the SPOMO Act. the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, sentenced ten pirates to 12 years imprisonment each with a N250,000 for hijack of a merchant vessel in May 2020.
“Similarity, in July 2021, it was reported that Togolese High Court convicted nine (9) pirates, following an attack on a tanker in May 2019 and sentenced one of the pirates to 15 years in prison while the rest were each sentenced to 12 years in prison.
“Compared to the year 2020, 2021 was a much better year for both Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea as well as the global maritime community in dealing with piracy and other maritime crimes.
“According to IBM report, the number of pirate attacks and kidnapped seafarers in the Gulf of Guinea region has dropped significantly. In Q4 of 2020, about 23 attacks were made against merchant ships trading in the region while 50 seafarers were kidnapped. In Q4 of 2021, the numbers dropped to seven attacks and 20 kidnappings.
“The region recorded 34 incidents of maritime piracy and armed robbery at sea in 2021, a sharp drop from 81 in 2020. While kidnappings at sea dropped by 55 per cent in 2021, the region continues to account for all kidnapping incidents globally, with 57 crew taken in seven separate incidents,” he stated.
