50% of Nigeria’s territorial waters under threat

By Folashade Alli
Investigations have revealed that vessel navigating within  Calabar Rivers are operating in fear has piracy and sea robbery activities hits a new peak.
An informed anonymous source reliably told our correspondent  that attacks on vessels and boats operating  around 40 Nautical Miles from the Fairway Bouy up to Calabar Port have increased.

According to our source, there are several islands around the passage leading to the port serve as  hideout for pirates cum militants to carry out their illegal operations on the water.

Adding that the constant pirates attacks within the axis has also led to hike in fares  by boat operators due to high level of risk.

“The problem with the passage is that there are several islands around our waters, parrot island, snake island, and militants are hiding there, you cannot believe that even ordinary boats crossing the island have increased their prices because of pirate activities, ships have been getting attacks very often ,” the source said.

Still speaking, he noted that the Nigerian territorial waters is yet to attain a satisfactory level in terms of security.

“I will only give Nigeria 50percent, despite the fact that Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has taken measures, you must have been following recently that they arrest oil tankers and handing them over to the EFCC, something is wrong somewhere because for one reason or the other nobody has been prosecuted”

Lamenting, he ascribe the challenges facing the apex maritime regulatory body NIMASA  to well placed individuals in the society.

“NIMASA is struggling but at the same time there are people sponsoring these pirates, it is not that we cannot fight the problems but there are certain individuals profiting from this act”

“In terms of curbing incidences of piracy we have a lot of work to do, NIMASA decided to involve the private sector through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) with an organization called Global West Vessel Specialist, if we are to tackle this thing we need to involve the private sector”, he posited.

“Only 50percent of our waters can be considered safe, everyday I receive messages of piracy reports here” he confirmed