From left: Executive Director, Operations, NIMASA, Mr. Shehu Ahmed, Director General of the agency, Dr Bashir Jamoh and Executive Director, Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services Engr. Victor Ochei during the press briefing in Lagos, Friday.

The Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, Dr Bashir Jamoh has said that though the agency has deployed all the maritime security assets under the Integrated National Security and Waterways Protection Infrastructure also called the Deep Blue Project, all the assets have yet to be fully operational.

The DG has also disclosed that incidences of piracy, sea robbery and other related maritime crimes in the country and across the entire Gulf of Guinea region has recorded a 28-year low going by figures released by global maritime agencies including the Malaysia-based International Maritime Bureau IMB, which is a branch of International Chamber of Commerce ICC.

Addressing a media conference in Lagos Friday, the NIMASA boss hinted that a Federal Government’s Steering Committee on the implementation of the maritime security initiatives, co-chaired by the Federal Ministry of Transport and the Federal Ministry of Defence is currently developing an organogramme, after which all the deployed security assets would be fully operational.  

According to him, the organogramme would clearly define who does what under the maritime security initiative, especially between NIMASA and the Nigerian Navy; the two principal actors in the management of the country’s waterways security infrastructure.

“We have deployed all the maritime security assets under the Deep Blue Project but some of them are not fully operational. This is because the Steering Committee co-chaired by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Federal Ministry of Defence is working out an organogramme in terms of who does what.

“You know the Deep Blue Project assets are not for maritime security alone, they are meant to complement what the Nigerian Navy is doing in terms of providing security on the nation’s territorial waters, so we are doing everything procedurally”, the DG also said.

While fielding questions from newsmen, the DG observed that the piracy figures released last year by the IMB shows that Nigeria in particular and the Gulf of Guinea in general has not recorded this level of decline in piracy and other maritime crimes since 1994.

Recent report by the IMB shows a drastic reduction of over 81 per cent in the number of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, including Nigeria for the second quarter of 2021. It also reported an 80 per cent reduction in the number of cases of kidnap in the region within the review period.

Details of the report show that while 33 incidents of piracy were reported in the last quater of 2020, only six cases were reported in the second quarter of 2021, indicating a reduction by 27, representing an 81.8 per cent decline. The number of kidnapped crew in the region also declined from 50 in the last quater of 2020 to 10 in the second quarter of 2021, which represents an 80 per cent decline.

He attributed this sharp drop to a combination of factors, including collaborations and efforts of the agency, the Nigerian Navy, the international navies, the European Union and many other countries of the world.

“If you ask me, the sharp decline in the level of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Guinea is as a result of concerted global efforts. Recently, Korea donated a military ship to us and we require $1.4million to bring it to Nigeria. I hear Japan is also planning to donate a similar equipment to us.

“So it is not only the efforts of the 25-member nations of the Gulf of Guinea that brought about the decline in the level of piracy and maritime crimes in the region rather it is as a result of efforts across the globe. The deployment of the Deep Blue Project assets definitely played a significant role”, he said.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had last year launched the assets under the project, some of which had been deployed since February last year to combat piracy on land, air and sea within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone EEZ.