Nigerian Navy
Nigerian Navy
Nigerian Navy
Nigerian Navy Seeks African Sub-regional Communication
Network on Maritime Security
The Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas
has called on navies in the West African Sub-Region to develop a
common network that would facilitate greater integration for
seamless information sharing across the entire sub-region. Vice
Admiral Ibas gave this charge at the opening ceremony of the 60th
Anniversary of the Ghana Navy.
Admiral Ibas emphasized that it would equally be expedient for
member countries to reduce the bureaucracy required to share
information, train personnel in common official language used by
member nations as well as develop and share data regarding
convicted offenders of maritime crimes. These measures, he posited,
would greatly enhance maritime operations and the collective desire
to rid the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) of criminality within the shortest
possible time. While reiterating the commitment of the Nigerian
Navy (NN) to emplace a secure maritime environment for the
prosperity of Nigeria, the GoG countries and the global commons in
general, Admiral Ibas offered that the availability of the Regional
Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) Training School in Lagos-Nigeria is
another prospect to be harnessed by member countries.
He also highlighted some NN independent operational engagements
established to check criminality at sea, including Operation TSARE
TEKU and Operation RIVER SWEEP, stating that since the activation
of the anti-piracy operation 3 years ago, there has been a
successive decline in reported cases of pirate/sea robbery attacks
within Nigeria’s maritime domain.
The CNS pointed out that apart from the 2 specifically designed
operations, the NN has continued to conduct policing patrols across
the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and territorial waters
employing the advantage of its MDA infrastructure to coordinate and
direct the pattern of patrols. According to him, the Service is
thus able to conduct round the clock surveillance of Nigeria’s
maritime space using the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability
(RMAC) and the Falcon Eye (FE) facilities in addition to surface
vessels and helicopters.
Admiral Ibas stressed that the Service recently signed an MoU on
white shipping with the Indian Navy, has applied to join the Indian
Ocean Naval Symposium and participated in the establishment of a
mechanism for sharing maritime information with regional navies and
maritime regulatory agencies at the Maritime Trade Information
Sharing Centre in Ghana. He also stated that these strategic
partnerships have the potential to further increase NN domain
awareness across both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, with positive
impact on surveillance capacity to facilitate NN policing
duties.
Furthermore, the CNS disclosed that the NN engages regularly
with various maritime stakeholders in Nigeria in fostering a shared
vision on the accomplishment of maritime security tasks and
information sharing which has led to the successful arrest and
prosecution of several cases. He informed that one positive outcome
of such consultation with the maritime stakeholders was the
launching of the Harmonised Standard Operating Procedure (HSOP) on
Arrest, Detention and Prosecution of Vessels and Persons (HSOP
AD&P) in Nigeria’s Maritime Environment in January 2017.
According to Admiral Ibas, the NN constantly engages directly with
each agency on modalities for implementation and that has resulted
in the arrest of over 130 vessels within the past 2 years.
According to the CNS, the HSOP was further boosted as a legal
instrument for the administration of maritime crimes in Nigeria by
Mr President’s recent assent to the Suppression of Piracy and other
Maritime Offences Bill of 2019. The Act would serve as strategic
deterrent to the commission of various criminalities within the
nation’s maritime environment and curtail the excesses of
syndicates that continue to profit from sponsoring acts of piracy
within the GoG.
SULEMAN DAHUN
Commodore
for Chief of the Naval Staff