Nigeria delisted from sea piracy list, says Navy

Nigeria has achieved a major milestone in its anti-piracy drive as the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has now delisted the country from its piracy list.

The Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Adm. Awwal Gambo, who disclosed this at the Joint Nigeria-European Union collaborative ceremony held at the Western Naval Command, Apapa, Lagos, applauded the Federal Government’s commitment and decisive initiative on the Deep Blue Project to tackle the menace of maritime insecurity on the waterways.

The CNS, who was represented by the Chief of Policy and Plans, Naval Headquarters, Abuja, Rear Adm. Suleiman Garba explained that this feat was achieved following the significant success occasioned by the Nigerian Navy’s increased maritime security operations against maritime criminalities in collaboration with other agencies.

“The commitment of the Nigerian Navy towards maritime security has yielded dividends and a lot has been achieved by the Nigerian Navy in the safeguard of the Gulf of Guinea. Nigeria has continued to record successes in the anti-piracy war as activities of pirates in the Gulf of Guinea have reached an all-time low in more than a decade. The Nigerian Navy has continuously acquired new assets and has further improved its capabilities to maintain a large fleet and to operate far beyond its territorial waters,” he said.

Gambo said that Nigeria had a robust and professional navy with historic tradition and has collaborated with other Gulf of Guinea Navies to address maritime security situation in the Gulf of Guinea.

“A notable result from the collaboration is the arrest of 10 pirates whose jail terms were secured for hijacking a Chinese fishing vessel, FV HAI LU FENG II off Cote D’Ivoire in May 2020,” he said.

Gambo said that a state of the art Maritime Domain Awareness facilities comprising the Falcon Eye and the Regional Maritime Awareness Capability Centres allow the Nigerian Navy to monitor its territorial waters and beyond.

He called for enhanced collaboration with EU and coastal states within the framework of the Yaoundé Architecture on information sharing in order to bridge the apparent existing communication gap.