The Sun News Online

Having lost five employees to pirates who hacked them to death in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, Trawler Owners Association of Nigeria (NTOA) called out its members to the streets of Lagos in protest, recently.

They dressed in black attire, carried placards, addressed press conferences, wrote protest letters to various authorities, stormed the Western Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy with an armada of 40 fishing trawlers, steaming back and forth in the waters of the Naval Base.

They did not stop there. They withdrew their 170 strong fishing fleet from the deep seas, Nigeria’s coastal waters, abandoning commercial fishing and exposing the industry to the avarice of poachers.

Vice President of the association, Mrs Margaret Orakwusi, spoke on the implications of allowing pirates to kill and maim fishermen and sailors who are out there to earn a living. She pointed at the millions of dollars in equipment and investment that would go waste, if government fails to protect the sailors, trawlers and commercial fishing in Nigeria.

Nigerians would have no fish in their daily meals and government would not earn the foreign exchange that commercial fishing had been contributing to the economy. She spoke to Daily Sun.

Why we went on strike
We are protesting the killing of our employees by pirates in the Niger Delta area of the country. They killed five men in two days for no justification.

Their only offence is that they elected to earn a decent living by working hard in their own calling. They were hacked to death by vicious pirates who attacked them in the night, armed to the teeth.
The death of these men have put fears into the minds of the living. The sailors are now very afraid for their lives and you cannot blame them.

Our loses
The losses we have sustained in the industry cannot be quantified in terms of naira and kobo. In just 2 days, we lost five able bodied men to pirates and several others are still in the hospital receiving treatment.
We have lost lives. The whole investment in industrial fishing in this country is now lying idle in our jetties because of the activities of pirates, and the happenings at the Niger Delta region.

We had held several meetings up to the presidency. Before Obasanjo left office, we met with him three times but nothing positive has been done to check the menace of pirates.
Things get worse everyday.

The pirates have progressed from kidnapping the sailors. Now they take the vessels hostage and ask for ransome.
Where do we get all the money they demand from? Nobody is coming up to assist us and we believe that it is unacceptable.

We are calling on government to provide us with adequate security so that we can go about our legitimate means of income without fear of attacks from pirates.
Some people may ask what is in fishing, but the industry is so important. It is the second largest foreign exchange earner in the non oil sector.

We employ more than 60,000 people and provide indirect employment to fish mongers. We provide fish that everybody eats and we earn foreign exchange for the country. Why should anybody wish such an important industry to die.

In the last administration of President Obasanjo, we held meetings with some security operatives, including the Chief of Naval Staff. As a result of that meeting, a committee was set up to address the issue.

It could be that the committee is still sitting because no solid action has been taken. If you have somebody to fight a battle but he is not properly equipped, do you expect him to perform a miracle?
A lot of people are protesting our cause, those who feel that the fishing industry should not die. I am appealing to the government to do something urgently.

Have you meet with Yar’Adua?
We have written letters. We have requested to see the Minister of Agriculture. We have also requested to see the President.
So far, nobody has called us and nobody seems to take us serious. In any other country, when you inform the authorities that five able bodied men, in the course of their legitimate employment, lost their lives, the minimum would have been a condolence visit or a letter would have been written to the industry.

When did these five men actually die?
They were killed in the last week of January in 2008.

Any physical or face to face talk with
anybody in government?
What physical again, when we have written letters. We have used our ‘phones to make calls. What else would you want us to do to force them to solve the problem?
How much do you incure as losses arising from the present action?
Each trawler looses N350,000 each day. We are also losing a lot of money to have them stay put at our jetties. By the time you want to send the trawlers back to sea, you would spend a minimum of N5 million on each of them.

This is the cross we have to bear to call the attention of government to do the right thing and provide a conducive environment for people to go about their sources of income safely.
How long are you willing to continue to stay off the oceans?
We will continue to stay away until somebody somewhere, who should be responsible, addresses the issues on ground.

If the Naval Command say that you do not have communication gadgets…?
The Navy cannot say that, because we have. When our vessels are being attacked, we communicate them and follow with personal telephone calls.
Probably, they do not have the equipment to respond timely, but they have always come after the incident.

Do you think the attacks on your members by pirates is political?
It is not political. The thing is that out there at sea, the pirates are unchallenged. They come fully armed, battle ready.
When they come, they steal the gadgets on board the vessels such as echo sounder, communication equipment and you cannot believe that there are so many equipment on board the vessel.
These equipment cost millions of naira.

What of your catch?
About 80 per cent of our catch is for exports and it is a huge sum of money. The pirates take these things away unchallenged.
They go out and sell them. There had been incidents where our packaging materials were found in neighbouring countries.
We also have the problem of poachers. They came into our territorial waters, fish, and provide ready markets for our products and materials stolen by pirates. These assaults call for action.

For how long has this situation been
plaguing your association?
Piracy had been there all along but recently, it has taken a new dimension. Our vessels are now taken hostage and ransoms are demanded. These were not happening before.
Right now, they come fully armed. You need to see them with AK 47 and belts of unexpended bullets.
When they attack, they blast our vessels. If you see some of the vessels that were victims, just back from sea, they are a sorry sight.

We first took the dead bodies out and the wounded, to the hospital. The hospitals in Apapa are now very familiar with us.
As I speak with you, we have Engineers and Captains lying down in hospitals in Apapa. They have bullet wounds all over their bodies.

Some of the vessels are bullet ridden. Are we in a war?
Any specific demands from government?
Our specific demands are that government should provide security for our citizens, our equipment, our investments and our territorial waters.

Our second urgent demand is that government should bring down our operational cost.
When other farmers cry, their problems are solved. We are all important. We use Automotive Gas Oil ( AGO) or diesel, 24 hours a day, for our operations.
Any slight movement in the price of diesel affects our operational cost. We are not like companies on land, which depend on Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and use their generators as standby.

About 80 per cent of the cost of our operations is expended on diesel. You may ask why are we complaining, instead of passing the excesses to the final consumer, or the end user.
We cannot do that because our market is not really in Nigeria, but the international market.
We are not in a position to dictate the price of commodities in the international market. Other governments have given it different names and some subsidise the cost of AGO for their fishing companies.

We are asking our government to do the same. Government should not allow the fishing industry to die, considering the jobs we offer; the money we earn for the country and the fish we provide for the citizens of this country.

This is one industry that has provided the citizens with the cheapest source of protein in the country.
Strength of your association?
A lot of our company members have died natural death because of these hardships and hard times. For now, we are about 28 companies in the association.
A lot of companies have died because of the problem of AGO and problems arising from insecurity. Many too, are trying to leave the country, and yet, our government says it wants to attract foreign investments.
We also need to be attracted in the country.
Are pirates Nigerians?
We would not know for sure.

Your strength
We have 170 fishing trawlers worth more than $200 million. We have all pulled out from the oceans and we would remain that way until government comes to our assistance.