The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has intercepted 244 vessels allegedly involved in illegal activities on Nigeria’s territorial waters over the last two years, Director-General, Patrick Akpobolokemi has disclosed.
The vessels include those alleged to have been involved in sea robbery, illegal bunkering and other criminal activities in Nigeria’s maritime domain.
“The last two years of our acquiring operational and enforcement capability had led to the arrest of over 244 vessels. Their offences range from piracy and sea robbery, economic sabotage, illicit activities to non-compliance with regulatory regimes and evasion of statutory levy payment,” he said.
Akpobolokemi, who spoke at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Maritime University (NMU) and NIMASA Dockyard at Okerenkoko in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State stated last week.
According to him, the collaboration of the agency with the Nigerian Navy, as well as other security agencies, had helped it to maintain and sustain physical presence in all the remote areas of Nigeria’s maritime domain.
He added that through the partnership, the powers of the agency to enforce compliance to the provisions of the Cabotage Act, had increased.
He pointed out that as a result of the physical patrol of the waters, incidence of security breaches had continued to decline in both frequency and scale of success.
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