The Eastern Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy in one go made 58 interceptions at the Gulf of Guinea in a move to check criminalities in the nation’s maritime domain.
The interceptions were made during a three-day intensive training exercise to test the operational readiness of the ships in the custody of the command.
The Eastern Naval Command maritime area stretches from the Calabar and Bonny fairway buoy to the Brass terminal. In all, six ships namely Nigerian Navy Ship Okpabana, NNS Centenary, NNS Thunder, NNS Andoni and NNS Makurdi took part in the exercise.
Although no arrests were made in the 58 interceptions because the ships were not found wanting, the Flag Officer Commanding, ENC, Rear Admiral Atiku Abdulkadir, who led the operations, said such interruptions had in the last 11 months led to the seizure and destruction of over 1, 500 vessels, trawlers and boats conducting illegal activities in the maritime domain.
The ENC controls just a portion of Nigeria’s maritime coast line which is about 420 nautical miles in addition to an Exclusive Economic Zone of 200nm available to be explored and exploited.
In this area lies abundant living resources like fish, which accounts for about 40 per cent of total animal protein in the diet of the average Nigerian and non-living resources such as oil that accounts for about 95 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings.
Activities of sea pirates and oil theft account for the dwindling nation’s foreign earnings and have continued to put the Navy on its toes.
Speaking on renewed drive to curb criminalities on the nation’s waterways, Abdulkadir said regular sea patrol has become a sine-qua-non.
He said the Navy would continue rigorous surveillance on the nation’s maritime domain in order to curtail illegal operations, adding that such training exercise was carried out four times in one year.
Abdulkadir said, “In the last three days, all the ships investigated were 58. This shows how critical we have resolved to clear the sea of illegal elements. It is a message to those carrying out illegal activities that they should steer clear. One of the vessels we intercepted at about 2.04am of the second day, was not found wanting, but samples were collected for further investigations. We normally search them thoroughly and we release them when we find out that they are operating legally.
“We have embarked on sea surveillance to ensure that our water ways are safe for legal users. Not too many ships operate on the water ways, I can assure you that a majority of the ships operating our waterways today are legal marine operators. We will continue to train our personnel in a more practical way to ensure that oil thieves are shown the way out of the sea.
“In specific term, since this year, we have arrested and destroyed in the creeks and outside over 1,500 illegal boats and ships conducting illegal activities in term of crude oil theft and illegal bunkering. We have handed over a couple of them to the police and civil defence and in a short while, I can assure you that you will see a number of them being prosecuted. The Nigerian Navy would continue to maintain its presence at sea to ensure that crude oil theft and other illegal maritime activities are brought to an end.”
But the cost of maintaining policing the maritime domain is enormous as each of the massive warships used for the exercise made use of at least 495, 000 litres of diesel within a five-day period. This is apart from the numerous drums of oil lubricants and the logistics used in maintaining the ship and personnel on board in the sea for the period of surveillance.
One of the personnel told our correspondent in confidence that so much fund is required to keep the ship in the high sea on a regular basis, but that the Navy has had to cope with the little resources allocated to it in the annual budget.
“The engines run continuously even when they are not on patrol. Offshore ships are kept aloft all year round and you do not allow the engine of the ship to go empty before refilling. It requires so much funding which we are not getting at the moment. But that will not stop us from doing our own very best with what we have,” he stressed.
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