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NIMASA determined to end piracy in Nigeria Waters- Dakuku Peterside

Dr. Dakuku Peterside, DG NIMASA
The
Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency
(NIMASA), Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has expressed his agency’s determination to fight pirates and other bandits operating on the nation’s territorial waters.

Peterside, while noting that
so far the rate of piracy has  reduced, assured  that this trend would continue as the agency moves to introduce new measures to tackle all forms of
maritime crime.
Speaking  to  the
executive members of the League of Maritime Editors and Publishers who met with
him in his office,  the NIMASA DG said the agency was being repositioned to
play a new part  in line with  global  best practices.
Peterside ,who explained
that the agency was dealing with an international audience, was of the view that
this required that the standard to be international as nobody  would assess the country with Nigerian standard.
According to him, part of
this new measure is a big fight against piracy and other maritime crime.
He  pointed out that
the fight against maritime crime was collective, including the Nigerian Navy,
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and every other stakeholder in the industry.
With this measure, he
assured that the industry wouid continue to experience drop in maritime crime.
He said, “ the  fight
against piracy is a collective effort of all working in the sector, Nigerian
Navy, NPA and every other stakeholder in the industry.
“Going forward, we will
experience more drop in   cases of piracy and maritime crime. I have
always said it, we will do everything to tackle the albatross hanging
 around our neck called piracy.  We have put in place a number of
things to check piracy and other maritime crime.
“Number one is that in
the few days the House of Representatives will pass the Anti-piracy bill. It
has gone through second reading, the House has gone  through it clause by
clause  and it is remaining the final reading. It is  to be passed
 for concurrent by senate, and I think we have made remarkable progress in
that regard. When the Bill is passed  into law, it will give us the legal
teeth to fight maritime crime and piracy.”
The NIMASA DG said that the
agency was  misrepresented on the  deep blue sea project,
   which according to him  “involves acquisition of
critical maritime assets, boats, intervention aircraft, helicopters, command
and control centre and other assets including the training of  of special
forces to tackle maritime crime.”
He noted that a lot of
 progress had been made, and that the
  assets would soon start coming in and would be  on the  waters with large foot
print on Nigeria’s territorial waters.
“The pirates cannot be
accommodated. We made it clear that by our presence, we will have zero
tolerance on pirates and other criminals within our territorial waters.
 “We are collaborating
with Nigerian Navy to carry out a number of special operations, including
getting support from the US Navy. We have enhanced our surveillance systems. We
have a better view of what is happening in our maritime so that we can
intervene and respond within short notice. 

“Recently, we rescued a seafarer who
was attacked at the coast of Bonny and within a short notice we were able to
intervene and he was evacuated with our helicopters”, the DG said.
 The President
 of League, Mr  Kingsley Anaroke had in his speech commended the
 management of NIMASA for a number of  reforms being introduced by the
agency.

Anaroke  said
  the new executive of League was  ready to collaborate with
 NIMASA  in its various measures  lined up to give the maritime
industry an international  status that could compete with other global
standards.

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