Rising Wave of Maritime Crimes Threat to Nigeria’s Economy, Says Osinbajo

Paul Obi in Abuja
The Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday said the increasing wave of maritime crimes in the coastal waters and maritime sector portend great threat to Nigeria’s economy and the survival of the Niger Delta region.

He challenged security agencies in the maritime sector to expedite action in activating laws that would effectively halt maritime criminal activities in the country.

The vice president bemoaned the incessant activities of sea criminals, raising concern over how such menace has deeply affected the people and resources of Niger Delta, alongside adjourning waters.

He spoke in Abuja during the public presentation of the ‘Harmonised Standard Operating Procedures on Arrest, Detention and Prosecution of Vessels and Persons in Nigeria’s Maritime Environment,’ organised by the Nigerian Navy in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Osinbajo explained that the consequences of dangerous sea criminal activities have led to “the loss of commerce, and the designation of our waters as unsafe.” The operating standard procedure was initiated in view of the recently adopted African Charter on Maritime Security in 2016.

According to the vice president, “The people and resources of Niger Delta including their adjourning waters have suffered disproportionately the consequences of these maritime crimes and environmental degradation.

“The immediate consequences of these dangerous sea criminal activities are the loss of commerce, and the designation of our waters as unsafe.
“In this reaction to the serious threats to our economy, there must be a number of activation of our operations,” he said.

He noted that “constant threats to the maritime environment manifested in the forms of sabotage to national maritime structures, crude oil theft, kidnapping, and unregulated fishing, oil bunkering, piracy, armed robbery at sea, pollution and environmental degradation.”

He added that “the sea has always been a most effective means of transportation, commerce, communication and cultural integration in Nigeria and the greater Gulf of Guinea, it has a great importance for trade and movements of goods and services in the country.

“The most enduring step taken by the Navy so far in addressing these threats is the Harmonised Standard Operating Procedures for the arrest, detention and prosecution of vessels and persons.
“The issues of enforcement and prosecution in this regard had been a major challenge in the country. But, there is no doubt that the task can now be achieved by an aggregation of each component of the law enforcement agencies, “he said.

In his welcome address, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas, stated that “Nigerian maritime environment was a vast sea area endowed with abundant deposit of hydrocarbon, and also home to a substantial bio-diversity of marine resources, thus attracted huge investments particularly in the oil and gas sector with future prospects in sectors such as recreation and energy amongst others that were yet to be optimally exploited.”

Ete-Ibas said: “The criminal and illicit activities such as crude oil theft, illegal bunkering, piracy and sea robbery, kidnapping, smuggling, trafficking in small arms and light weapons, human and narcotics, illegal fishing as well as marine pollution perpetrated by the criminals have continued to threaten and undermine peaceful exploitation of these God given resources.”

Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), also harped on an effective legal framework to will safeguard the nation’s maritime sector.
Malami promised that government was ready to chart a sustainable path to ensure that Nigeria’s coastal environment is safe for the economy to thrive.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Chief Okoi Obono Obla also made presentations centred on safeguarding the nation’s territorial waters and the maritime sector.