By Uche Usim

A recent upsurge in the menace of pirates’ attacks in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) has kept stakeholders in the mari­time sector uncomfortable.

Recently, the United Nations Security Council noted that Nigeria loses about $1.5 billion a month due to piracy, armed robberies at sea, smuggling and fuel sup­ply fraud.

The criminals reportedly board vessels, steal valuables on board, divert cargoes (especially petroleum products) and kid­nap crew for ransom.

Investigations also reveal that a good number of pirates operating within the GoG are from Nigeria, a development that has dented the nation’s image on the global business scene as seafarers demand double salaries before venturing into the country.

Between January and March 2016, no fewer than 44 ship crew members were reportedly abducted, a development the Director of International Maritime Bu­reau (IMB), Pottengal Mukundan, de­scribed as “unacceptable”.

He added that reports in the last quarter of 2015 were indicative of more violence against ships and crews in the GoG, par­ticularly around Nigeria than anywhere in the world.

However, maritime experts have called for a number of measures to deal with the problem and reduce piracy to the barest minimum.

These include tougher legislation, high­er presence of armed military men/patrol of hotspots, heavier penalties for offend­ers, among others.

Military-led patrols

In addressing the piracy nightmare, the Director General of the Nigerian Mari­time Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, in a recent engagement with journalists in Lagos, said a legal framework that would prescribe stiffer sanctions, a more vigor­ous and vigilant military-led patrol, better intelligence gathering network and other mechanisms are being put together.

“We are signing fresh MoUs with the Navy and the Air Force to ensure wider coverage of our waters. NIMASA is on the verge of acquiring fast moving patrol boats. We’ve put out the advertisements for bids. Hopefully, the entire process will be wrapped up in September.

“Another thing we’re doing is inter­facing more with other agencies. For instance, we’ve our own Satellite Surveil­lance System, the Navy also have theirs called Falcon 1. The support from Navy also includes the deployment of Multi- Purpose Vessels (MPVs). The Air Force also has unmanned aerial vessels too. The NPA also has its own satellite surveillance and all these operations are coordinated by the office of the National Security Ad­viser. This is what we are doing to check piracy. When the pirates know the wa­ters are manned and no longer free as before, they’ll have a rethink before ven­turing into the sea to attack vessels,” he explained.

Legal framework

Maritime experts say Nigeria is about the only country without dedicated anti-piracy laws and this makes pirates liter­ally escape getting punishments from the courts. Some get a paltry N50,000 fine for the heinous crimes they commit.

Consequently, pirates have not seen any legal hurdles to deter them from ven­turing into various crimes at sea where they earn millions of dollars from ransom paid to free kidnapped crew and sales of cargoes on the hijacked vessels.

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To address this, Peterside said manage­ment of NIMASA is championing a bill that would proffer stiffer punishment for all culprits of piracy and thereby deter them from the criminal act.

“We discovered that there is no dedicat­ed anti-piracy law. The legal instrument is currently with the Ministry of Justice. From there, it will move to the Federal Ex­ecutive Council (FEC) and then move to the National Assembly to be passed into law. When operational, pirates will no longer be bailed with ridiculous amounts of money. They will be severely punished because piracy is clearly an act of econom­ic sabotage. The punishment will serve as a deterrent to all real and potential cul­prits of piracy. The criminal trade will be­come less attractive and by so doing, we’ll reduce piracy,” he added.

Removal of shipwrecks

Terminal operators, shipowners and other maritime stakeholders have urged the Federal Government to immediately remove various ship wrecks on the na­tion’s waterways as sea robbers and pi­rates use them as hideouts and survey platforms to monitor ships to be attacked.

The Manager, Health, Security, Safety and Environment of ENL Terminal, Mr. Raphael Oyinloye, recently raised the alarm over the wrecks that litter the Lagos water channels.

He said the miscreants have taken their unlawful acts to Tin Can Island, say­ing such abandoned vessels pose a great threat to terminal operations.

He therefore called on the Director General of NIMASA, Peterside, and his counterpart in the Nigerian Ports Author­ity (NPA), Mallam Habib Abdullahi, to remove the wrecks before the miscreants launch any attacks on vessels or port facili­ties.

Intelligence gathering

Security experts insist that tackling piracy requires a multi-national and multi-agency approach, especially within countries in the GoG. They likened it to war against insurgency where Nigeria and other neighbouring countries have consti­tuted a multi-national task force to battle the insurgents.

They said such multi-national collabo­ration and cooperation, especially in in­telligence, will help route out the pirates as they would not have safe haven to nest their nefarious activities.

The NIMASA boss has assured that such international partnerships is being cemented by the agency.

Economic impact

The pirates’ attacks affect the Nigerian economy in many devastating ways. Aside being a major source of oil, the GoG rep­resents a significant transit hub for cocoa and metals destined for world markets. London think-tank, Chatham House, re­ported that up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil are stolen everyday in the GoG.

Experts say incidents that occur in Ni­geria’s territorial waters affect the global economy as there are more interconnect­ed shipping supply networks. Britain’s Deputy UN Ambassador, Peter Wilson, pointed out that between those two pirate attacks, seven countries were affected, including Malta and Liberia whose flags were on the ships, Turkey, Greece and Nigeria where the cargo originated from, Egypt, Philippines and Turkey where the missing crew men came from.

While sea piracy is decreasing world­wide, the International Maritime Bureau said it is increasing at an alarming rate in the GoG and needs to be urgently tackled.