- Nigeria has faced 20 vessel attacks in 2018, of which 16 were in Brass, Bonny and Bayelsa coast.
- A cumulative loss of 40000-100000 barrels of oil are reported daily.
- NIMASA has set up a satellite surveillance system spanning 312 nautical miles.
- It tracked down 1685 tanker operations in the past 6 months which improved Cabotage trade.
- The complex maritime crime activity in the Nigerian waters requires a multidimensional approach which includes economic, environmental, political and security aspects.
Since the beginning of the year, as many as 20 vessels were attacked in the Nigerian waters, despite the interventions of Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), says a report published in New Telegraph Online.
Piracy and maritime crime have been more pronounced around Nigerian territorial waters, according to International Maritime Bureau, which noted that 16 of the attacks occurred off the coast of Brass, Bonny and Bayelsa.
Why is Nigeria Culpable?
The Nigerian Navy said Nigeria loses between 40,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil daily due to thefts and lack of dynamic approach of dealing with security challenges facing merchant vessels.
It was gathered that the dominance of foreign vessels, most of which do not meet with the requirement of the Cabotage law operating on the nation’s territorial waters with Nigerian ship owners, are the one culpable in the crimes.
The incessant criminal activities have become worrisome to the government as one of the unlawful practices, the ongoing illegal Ship-to-Ship (STS) operation in the nation’s waters offshore has constituted a huge source of revenue leakage to the economy.
Maritime Surveillance Set up
Miffed by the crime, NIMASA , having relied on Section 22 (P) of its Act, which empowers it to provide maritime security, established a satellite surveillance control and command center that has a coverage of up to 312 nautical miles from the coast line.
How does it operate?
The system, it was learnt, could detect vessels, even if the Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders is switched off.
It was revealed that patrol enforcement boats could interrogate the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images immediately.
According to the Director General of the agency, Dr Dakuku Peterside, NIMASA secured the reactivation of the maritime domain awareness capability to enable it enforce regulations.
How is it helping?
Appraising the security platform, he explained that the agency’s electronic security system would enable it to ensure the preservation of Cabotage trade for indigenous operators by identifying and differentiating Ship-To-Ship (STS) operations that take place at the secured anchorage and offshore locations.
Peterside said that the electronic surveillance assets could track the International Maritime Organisation number for all cooperating vessels in Nigerian waters.
Improved Cabotage Trade
He added that the surveillance platform had impacted positively on Cabotage trade, creating room for more local participation.
He noted: “This was not the case in 2017 when we could not separate between anchorage operations and Cabotage trade with high likelihood of 532 international vessels proceeding on Cabotage trade after lightering operations at the anchorage.”
The director general explained that the security system prevented foreign domination in Cabotage trade under the guise of STS.
Success
In the last six months, he noted that a total of 1,685 tanker operations were captured by the Satellite Surveillance System (SSS).
Of the operations, Peterside said that 284 were carried out at the anchorage area through lightering.
He noted that through surveillance guided enforcement operations, the 284 tankers that were lightened at the anchorage were hindered from participating in Cabotage operations.
How is the Security Contract made?
Already, he said that the Federal Government had reinstated the controversial maritime security contract, three months after it was terminated in order to consolidate the system.
In May this year, the contract was terminated through a memo dispatched by the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.
Cost & Objective
The security contract, championed by the Transportation Minister, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, was awarded to an Israeli firm, HLSL Security Systems and Technologies, at a cost of $195 million (about N60 billion) to procure security equipment and train Nigerian security personnel to tackle crimes on the nation’s waters.
Reason for Termination
The contractor is supposed to deliver a number of security items including special mission vessels, special mission aircraft, helicopters, command and control centre as well as retrain a number of our military personnel.
The director general of the agency said the contract was initially stalled as a result of investigation on the status of the firm.
Future Contract Proposals
Peterside said that the firm had since been given clean bill of health to proceed with the contract after the conclusion of the investigation.
He explained that the contract awarded to HLSL was not to take over maritime security in Nigeria but to train and complement the effort of the nation’s security personnel.
Challenges for the system
However, a maritime analyst and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Vickson Aghanenu, said the collusion among seamen, pirates, compromised elements in the oil industry and security agencies as well as international organised criminal networks, would not make the system to work effectively as conceived by the government.
He said that the criminal activities had continued to thrive daily on Nigerian waters despite the surveillance. According to him, the nation’s coastal waters are still dominated by foreign vessels banned in Europe.
What’s the Ultimate Solution?
Also, Dr. Alex Okwuashi, Rector, Certified Institute of Shipping of Nigeria (CISN), said that maritime challenges in Nigeria required a multidimensional approach and could be viewed from five perspectives.
According to him, economic, political, environmental, technological and security inadequacies pose gravel dangers particularly as they affect the activities in the nation’s territorial waters.
He added that the current security architecture in the country had not solved the problems of piracy, sea robbery, illegal bunkering and crude oil theft, pipelines vandalisation and sabotage, illegal tapping of petroleum products and crude oil, oil rig capture, hostage taking and oil spillage.
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Source: New Telegraph Online
